The Ties That Bind
by Ryan Black - Digital Wanderer
Summary: It's been 3 years since XANA's defeat. The Lyoko Warriors are moving on to college, their adventures behind them... but what will happen when their old enemy isn't as dead as they thought? Rated 'T' just in case.
1. What is Past is Prologue

**5/14/2010: As I'm leaving town to staff a summer camp for the next three months, 'Ties That Bind' is going on a hiatus. Unfortunately, any new updates after Chapter 8 will not be made until sometime this fall. James is just gonna have to sweat it out for now, given his current situation... LOL Seeya in the fall! -Ryan**

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All right, so here we go, folks! The story begins.. but where will it end? _There's no knowing where we're going! _I'm chuckling evilly right now because, in fact, _I_ don't even know where this thing will wind up yet.  
Thinly-veiled hype aside, **I'm here to learn to be a better writer. Those gracious few of you who do review these stories, please do so and tell me _anything at all_ that needs work. This is my first published story anywhere, so _please_ don't pull any punches! I'll be updating as often as I can, any important information relating to my postings will be made in the chapter openings, and each chapter after this first one will begin with a 'Journal Entry' from James Pierce. (My OC) This first chapter (technically a prologue in first-person flashback form) is made up entirely of one of those entries.  
Anyhoo, Ryan Black out. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Edit: Oh, crap, I forgot the disclaimer! Won't ever do that again...  
I don't own anything related to Code Lyoko's original cast of characters, plotline, setting, or anything else currently belonging to Moonscoop, Antefilms, etc. I DO claim my OC, (James Pierce) all of the new locations, (the school in Odessa that doesn't exist, for example) and all of the original elements of my story's plot. With the formalities out of the way, let's begin!**

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Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
18:14:56  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-0  
"What is Past is Prologue"

Dear Lincoln,

Well, it's my birthday again! Overall, it's been a good twenty-three years, as you could probably gather from the last five that you've been around for. In light of this momentous occasion, I've decided that I finally have a story to tell you… no, a good one, I promise! It won't be anywhere near as boring as the usual accounts you get from me about obscure aerodynamic equations and my posse's relationship statuses, I can at least assure you of that. It's something I've kept from you for all the five years I've been writing this journal; something only me, my brother, and a very select few of my friends have known about up to now. I've decided to finally write these adventures down, just for the sake of remembering all of the incredible things that we (that is, me and my friends) have accomplished together.

I'll start with the events of December 17th, 2009, almost a year before I got involved in this story at all! The Texas towns of Odessa and Midland were sound asleep at 11:30 that night. A powerful storm had been pouring down rain for hours, leaving a dreary black void where a star-filled night sky should have been, but no one's sleep was the worse for it. Strong, cold winds forced horizontal rain through the vacant streets, rain that would have thoroughly soaked anyone who was unfortunate enough to be caught outside in that markedly unpleasant weather. In hindsight, believe it or not, it probably _isn't_ a good thing that no one was quite that unlucky! Not that it would have changed anything…

One place left seemingly unaffected by the weather was the old Odessa Golf Club; eighteen holes of beautiful trees, crisply trimmed fairways, and a plethora of smooth, hard-to-read slopes that can make the gentleman's sport much more interesting for the inattentive. The landscaping of the course was cleverly designed to use those very slopes to direct the storm's rapidly running water away from the more visible fairways, greens, and tee boxes (which still soak up more than enough to keep their lush appearance) and toward the deep rough, keeping the primary course clear of visible deterioration. The heavier erosion this causes in the more isolated areas is seldom seen, and then only by the groundskeepers or any truly… er, _talented_ hacks. In at least one place, where two different inclines meet at their bases to form a natural waterway, any really heavy rainfall wears the soil down rapidly. Five years ago, this had formed a small gully in a spot hidden by a thick oak growth, and it was just getting deeper with every new storm. This probably wouldn't have ever caused a serious problem, (assuming it was occasionally filled back in) if not for the specific location of this _particular_ eroded patch of dirt.

In the turbulent skies above, powerful lightning discharges lit up the course, almost like nature was attempting to force sunlight into the shadowy realm of the night. Unless I've missed something, the darkness is still unmatched in that contest! On that fateful December night, one of these brilliant bolts actually made landfall _on _the course and struck a very tall, very old oak tree in the stand overlooking that eroded waterway. All because of the peculiar location of that unremarkable tree, what happened next bound together the fates of nine people (myself included) and set us in a position squarely opposing certain global doom! Not good, considering that seven of us were full-time college students at the time and the other two were dead.

As the bolt's energy worked its way earthward through the tree's century-old trunk, it suddenly leapt through the damp winter air toward the path of lesser resistance offered by a newly-exposed cable buried in the soggy Texas ground, its rubber insulation cracked and broken by age and the shifting soil. If one were able to follow that path underground, I discovered later, one would find that the lightning bolt's power was fed to a capacitor. (a sort of high-capacity, one-shot battery) This device, nearly overloaded by the bolt's raw electrical force, proceeded to dump that potent energy and light off a reaction that began to fuel a great and powerful electronic device: a supercomputer, hidden underground here at the height of the Cold War.

With a brief shower of sparks and the droning sound of enormous cooling fans as the event's only witnesses, the aged monitors connected to the dust-filled mainframe began to glow green, their command-prompt screens at the ready. No human being would be here to tell the machine what to do, but it stood in that room ready as a sentinel nonetheless. Such is the advantage of a machine: it doesn't require food, water, rest, entertainment, or any of the other necessities that can distract, delay, bore, and tire an organic being. Given a constant power source, (present in the small nuclear generator the lightning bolt kick-started) it can wait forever. It can afford to be patient.

The screens flickered. This computer _had_ been waiting for two years, dormant though it was, for the chance to reboot. Not the machine itself, mind you, but rather an artificial intelligence program resident in the long-quiet hard drive. The green screens gave way, just for a moment, to black. Like a beast awakening from a long slumber, the program slowly attempted to restore its former power, reloading and decompressing itself. Several of the supercomputer's dated memory banks were strained to the brink of failure by the effort required to keep such a powerful (and filespace-hungry) program running, setting off a cacophony of pops, snaps, and ozone-infused sizzles as the obsolescent device tried to warm up. The artificial intelligence took stock of its aging home, ran a self-preservation subroutine and concluded that a new host computer would be necessary for its continued survival. It had work to do.

The computer's every component began to whine in a sort of off-key melody as its new master took full command of the unit, suppressing or deleting all other functions to give itself more room to work. The monitor screens blacked out, and the familiar white command text was replaced by the blood-red image of a sinister roundel that only six living people would recognize. The AI went to work, removing old programs and unnecessary data to make room for a new project; one which would guarantee its own survival… if necessary, to the exclusion of all else.

In the dark of the night, no one was there to watch as a strange mist emerged from the ground. It twisted up from the Earth (moving _against_ the howling wind) and would have seemed to anyone who didn't know better to almost know what it was doing. It floated for a minute, hovering above the site of the lightning strike that would so unhappily alter the lives of a half-dozen people… for the _second_ time. The swirling, translucent black mass rose from the earth and vanished into the windswept shadows.

XANA had returned.

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**Well, there you have it. I guess XANA was only _mostly_ dead... that's as opposed to 'all dead', in which case the only thing you can do is go through his clothes and look for loose change! Yes, I'm going to end every one of these with a poorly quoted, cheesy movie line, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. HAHA!**


	2. First Impressions, Part 1

**Hello, again! Well, this is the actual Chapter 1, where I'll be introducing my OC, my new environment for the story, a little bit of filler for the last 3 years' events, and the first of the Lyoko gang to return to the story. No XANA attacks yet, but they're coming...  
****For the record, it is a coincidence that I've stuck another gym teacher into the mix; that is to say, he's not a Jim Morales copy!  
Hope you like it, but _please_ review for me either way! I _need_ some feedback to properly edit the upcoming chapters! Man, that sounded a lot less nerdy in my head...  
Insecure author out.**

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Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
18:23:02  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-1  
"First Impressions, Part 1"

Just to the southwest of the golf course, there's a college campus on the northern edge of Odessa. This is the Odessa Polytechnic Institute, a small engineering school founded… wow, twenty years ago now. Overall, it was a great place to be for an aviation-obsessed freshman! The faculty was the best that could be found who weren't already teaching at the likes of Caltech or MIT, the student body was a fun, well-rounded bunch, and the cafeteria's food was even halfway edible! Personally, I had a good time for all my four years there, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Heh heh, funny… the 'cafeteria food' thing seems more like an 'Odd' kind of memory, doesn't it?

Anyway, my part in this story actually starts on August 27th, 2010. I was a new guy at the school; a bright-eyed, 17-year-old freshman just arrived from San Antonio. I was an up-and-coming aeronautical engineer with grand ambitions, the college experience would be my first opportunity to look after myself for a change, and I was eager to break out of the 'academic' shell I'd been hiding in for the last few years! I wasted no time in trying to make a few friends, showing up at the school's small football arena the week before classes to try out for the archery club…

8 Months Later…

"How's it goin', kid?" An athletic-looking man got up from his lawn chair set up along the 30-yard line of a football field to greet the newcomer. The coach appeared to be about 10 years older (and at least a foot taller) than the freshmen and sophomore students arranged in a loose line behind him, with short brown hair and critical brown eyes that gave him a commanding presence. His ball cap, school jersey, and requisite athletic shorts left absolutely no doubts as to his profession… or his carefully maintained physique! He reached his muscular hand out to shake the new kid's as he introduced himself. "Name's Jack Lafitte, I'm the head coach 'round here. You out here for archery practice, or just takin' a look around?" The coach's voice was deep and had a strong Southern drawl. He was friendly in tone, but there was a hint of military-esque authority in there somewhere that said he would tolerate no nonsense.

"I'm doing good, sir! My name's James Pierce, and I'm here to sign up for archery." The student was simple in appearance: dirty-blonde hair poked out from under a forest-camouflage combat cap, his wire-frame glasses were skewed slightly to the left in front of blue-green eyes, and his lightly-toned face showed both the last remnants of an acne problem and the first signs of peach fuzz. A mustard-yellow T-shirt and slightly faded blue jeans made up his dress. He had a neutral expression fixed on his face, suggesting he wasn't too comfortable letting his guard down around people.

"Gotcha… Pierce, huh? You have any experience with this, or do I need to show ya the ropes?" The former Olympic hopeful had taught the sport to many a student from scratch, and he enjoyed doing it, but it was just _so _much harder that way…

"Actually, I picked it up about three months ago working at a summer camp out in Giddings. I've gotten to be a pretty good shot... in my opinion, at least!" The kid's excited voice betrayed a wide-eyed eagerness that amused the coach.

"Alright, then. Less work for me, at least. Go ahead, grab a bow and show me what you got!" Coach Lafitte obviously wasn't one to mess around.

"No problem." James wasted no time in picking up a 35-lb-draw recurve longbow, (one of several standard, storebought bows that the school kept on-hand) strung an arrow in a clearly practiced routine, and stepped up to the rough 20-yd firing line. He drew the string down and back to the rim of his glasses with his left hand, dropped the front of the bow back level with his right, aimed along the arrow's shaft at the centermost of five targets, and released his three-fingered grip. The arrow waved its way through the air and punched a neat hole just inside of the red second ring around the yellow bulls-eye. Certainly not a perfect hit, but a good shot nonetheless!

Having thus proved himself competent, James was welcomed to the archery club. He showed potential, and he was able to use that to quickly assimilate himself into a group of his fellow archers. There were pats on the back, shooting tips and other such talk from the more experienced bowmen, a few even greener novices wondering how he did that, and Coach Lafitte watching from his lawn chair with an amused grin on his face.

As James got busy showing off and getting to know a few of the others still shooting at the 20-yd line, another new student walked onto the field behind them. Had he been anyone else, he might have walked up to the main group and either been ignored or absorbed into the ongoing conversation much like James had been. That, however, wasn't really _his_ style. Stepping up onto the simple steel-frame bleachers to the right of the field, he settled into a kneeling position, raised his left arm, steadied it with his right hand, and gave a quick jerk as a small projectile was sent silently across the 60-or-so yards to his target. The projectile hit home _in the bulls-eye_ of the target on the far right of the line! The impact caused a noticeable 'thud' that struck the conversations below silent... just as the unknown shooter started shouting.

"Woo-hoo! Yeah, who's the best?! Oh, that's right, _I_ am! Just wish Ulrich could have seen _that_ shot, ha ha!" James turned to his right and saw the archer in the stands, dancing in celebration. He was thoroughly dumbfounded by what he saw.

The new kid looked about his own age, albeit easily six inches shorter, had bright blonde hair and was yelling in a high-pitched voice that had just a touch of an Italian accent in it. His skin was light in tone and aggressive blue eyes looked out from his amiable face, but from there his description went off the deep end. He was dressed head-to toe in royal purple, from his bell-bottom pants and slightly lighter undershirt to the long-sleeve t-shirt that covered the upper half of his torso. His haircut drew even more attention, as his previously-mentioned blonde hair had been shaped up into a single large spike which then had a purple diamond dyed into it. It was plain to see that this guy had a flamboyant, energetic (and probably just a little bit obnoxious) personality, and that he didn't give a hoot what anyone thought about it! James liked him immediately.

Jack turned to the newcomer and asked, somewhat amused, "What shot? There's no arrow in the target, kid, and you ain't even holdin' a bow! Who are ya, anyway?"

"I'm the new exchange student, just got here." He spoke as he climbed back down from the bleacher where he'd been standing. "And I _did_ just shoot an arrow at that target over there. Yet another in a long line of beautiful hits by yours, truly…"

The gym teacher's face went ashen. "Are you sayin' you fired an arrow _over our heads_?! Of all the fool…"

"What do you think I am, crazy?! No, I was too far off to the right, and anyway…" He walked past the line of curious archers, showing off a short crossbow attached to his left forearm, then up to the target to pull out a funny-looking dart buried in the bulls-eye. "…I'm just too good to hit anything by accident!"

The infuriated Mr. Lafitte became red in the face as he retorted, "Well, next time, Mr. Sharpshooter, at least let me know you're here! I'm in charge, kid, and I don't much feel like gettin' shot in the back by some smug hotshot who didn't follow the rules!" The teenager quickly reloaded his crossbow contraption, spun around, and mouthed something as he fired the device with a trigger mounted on the frame near his left elbow. The spinning arrowhead flew straight into the target's center (the _exact_ center) with just the slightest sound of crunching Styrofoam.

"Well, this 'smug hotshot' sure can shoot, sir!" He laughed, his overly-energetic voice conveying an arrogant, carefree tone that drew looks (most of them somewhere between admiration and amusement) from the other archers, but also continued to irk the increasingly red-faced physical education instructor behind him. Ever the professional, though, Jack Lafitte walked back to his seat, muttering to himself about 'the first week' and 'givin' the new kid a break' as he sat back down.

James, for one, was dumbstruck. _He beat me without even trying!_ "Hey, dude! That was _incredible!_" James walked over to congratulate the new guy. "How on Earth did you do that?"

"I've had a lot of practice with this thing." he said as he brandished the crossbow. "You ought to see what happens with a moving target!"

"I'll bet... Anyway, I can at least tell you _I_ don't shoot that well. Great job, uh…"

"Oh, I'm Odd."

"Well, I sort of gathered that, but…"

"No, that's my name: Odd Della-Robbia!" James lifted an eyebrow and gave the kid a sarcastic stare. Odd just stared back until James finally took the hint.

"Oh... ah, okay. Sorry!" _Well, that's a new one._ "I'm James Pierce, good to meet you." Fearing the awkward silence that usually followed such introductions, he rapidly changed the subject. "So, you said something about being an exchange student. Where from?"

"My folks actually live in New Zealand, but I've been at a boarding school in France called Kadic Academy for a few years. They had a few college programs, but I wanted to try digital graphics… so I came here."

"Ah, okay. I spent a day in Strasbourg, France once. Part of a school trip. I liked the country well enough, but the weather was awful! I'm originally from Oklahoma myself, but I've been living in Texas since my dad got a job in San Antonio… wow, 12 years ago. Doesn't really feel like it's been that long."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. The last 3 years seem like a blur, but that's probably just the schoolwork. Without Einstein's help, my Science teacher alone could have killed me!"

"Einstein?"

"Oh, that's a friend of mine from Kadic, Jeremie Belpois. He's a walking brain, so I call him Einstein." He stopped talking for a second and looked more closely at his American friend's suddenly fixed gaze. "You, ah, like my bow, James?" James looked away nervously, blushing slightly when he realized he'd been staring at the contraption mounted on Odd's left arm.

"Oh… Ah, heh heh, yes. Do you mind if I take a closer look at it? I'm a sucker for this sort of thing!" James' engineering-obsessed (and now, slightly embarrassed) eyes had lit up as he got his first close-up view of the device.

"Sure, go for it! I need to get my arrow back, anyway…" Odd undid the Velcro straps holding the two halves of the hard-shell sleeve together, releasing his arm from the crossbow's grip. James studied Odd's unique weapon, deeply interested in its design. The extremely short arms of the bow worked through a torsion system (similar to a Roman 'Scorpion') mounted on a rigid fiberglass mold of Odd's arm. As the other archery students finished a volley, Odd also retrieved his projectile, apparently the only one of its kind, from the target where it had lodged itself in the foam board. It was a delta-shaped aluminum dart with a bullet-shaped central shaft about the same length as the chord of the bladed 'wings'. As an aeronautical student, James examined the perfectly stable miniature arrow with nerdish awe.

"Wow… This is a beautiful piece of work, Odd. I'm impressed!"

"Thanks. I didn't call Jeremie 'Einstein' for nothing! He designed it. He's great with computers, physics, history... just about anything that isn't athletic. And Ulrich, my roommate… well, it seemed like there's nothing he couldn't do once he was able to concentrate. He built the whole thing!"

"You must have been a real popular guy for your friends to go to all this trouble." James brandished the custom-made weapon to make his point.

"Yeah, we were a really close group, so the others made this as a gift for me when I left Kadic last year. Kind of a reminder of old times…" Odd seemed increasingly uncomfortable on the subject, and the conversation gave way to an awkward silence for a few moments.

"Uh, that's really cool, Odd." James handed the crossbow back to its owner. "So, you said you just got here..." He began to feel _really_ awkward as he thought about how to continue. He wasn't usually the kind of guy to invite someone else to do something, but he was trying to push himself.

_Just hope he can't hear that little squeak in your voice and get on with it! _Evidently, 'himself' was pushing back, too.

_Hey, don't rush me. This is difficult… _"I just gave the campus the once-over this morning, so I could, uh, probably show you around if you felt like it…"

"Sure, why not? I really need to find my room again, too. Kiwi's been in his cage since we left the airport and he might need..." James looked up at the suddenly silent Odd. His face was turning a funny pale shade.

"Kiwi? Who's Kiwi, you have a dog or something? I thought pets weren't allowed in the dorms."

"Ah, well, they're not… but there's no way I'm sending him home!" Odd looked a little panicked over his blown secret. "Kiwi needs me, he goes crazy whenever I'm not around! If you could keep him between us…"

"Relax, I can keep a secret." James actually liked the idea of hiding a pet on-campus. It sounded like a good story to tell back at home! "Alright then, where are you rooming? I'm in the Tarkio building, so I might know where to send you in there…" Odd pulled out a card his admissions counselor had sent him and looked at the room number on it.

"I'm in Room 322 in…Tarkio. Alright, same building! Which room's yours?" James looked a little surprised as he responded.

"Uh, 322. I guess that makes you my new roommate! I've been wondering about that..." He'd actually been hoping to room with someone a little less crazy than his usual group of friends. James just seemed to have a knack for finding the oddball in the room, and it didn't look like he'd be catching a break on that front in college, either.

"Well, that's perfect!" Odd sounded truly relieved about something or other. "Now you don't have to be too surprised about what Kiwi did when we first got in there…"

"What do you mean surpri… oh, no." James had a hunch. "What did he do, Odd?" His voice had taken on a flat, serious tone, the kind your parents break out when they don't buy your excuse. Odd just gave a sheepish grin before he answered.

5 Hours Later…

After getting his things unpacked, Odd went looking for his professors while James got acquainted with Kiwi. The (_already_) troublemaking little mutt looked like a medium-size bull terrier with grayish-tan fur and the intelligent facial features of a beagle. It was clear from his behavior that he could be clever, but preferred to goof around. _A lot like his owner…_ Speaking of whom, James was getting the idea that Odd hadn't followed Kadic Academy's rules regarding pets, either. Kiwi's cage was disguised; a simple animal crate of the same color and material as the white plastic drawers in front of it that acted as Odd's dresser. It looked much too convincing to be a first attempt!

"I gotta tell ya, Kiwi," James said as he petted the strangely cute little dog in his lap, "Your 'daddy' isn't exactly the kind of guy I was expecting. Probably a good thing, though. He seems like he knows how to have a good time, and I need to lighten up!" He thought about it, and the idea that the match may have been intentional wasn't entirely inconceivable. James had an inexplicable knack for making strange friends, and with Odd's… er, _reputation_ something of a local legend at Kadic, (according to Odd, anyway) it was possible that the calm, controlled, and _highly_ unorthodox James Pierce had been seen by the housing office as a good foil to the chaotic, free-spirited, and equally unconventional Odd Della-Robbia.

The dormitory they were sharing seemed pretty basic. Two beds, one on either side of the small room (with the one on the left of the door lofted to fit James' small dresser underneath), and two multi-purpose student desks with simple rolling task chairs made up the room's furniture. Most of the room was carpeted, with hard mats placed underneath the desks for the chairs to roll on, there were compact closets set into the wall at the head of each bed, and there was a door in the back of the right side of the room that James took to be the dormitory's simple restroom. (the showers were still communal) The single large window at the end of the room opened south, making for steady sunlight throughout the day. It was an architect's clever aesthetic touch that would also help keep the room stable in temperature.

James changed gears, putting Kiwi down and turning on his computer. It was a decade-old hunk of junk, but he'd brought it up-to-date as best he could and was somewhat proud of the results. "Alright, let's see what's coming up for Monday..." As the school's site came up, he logged in and started down the list of his classes. English, Writing, and the like would probably be the usual liberal-arts bores (as his vocabulary could attest, they were hardly needed), but the Science and History courses looked like they'd be much more in-depth than their high-school predecessors. _A good improvement for the likes of a brainiac!_ Calculus would be difficult, but necessary for an engineer, so James looked forward to the challenge. Archery was looking good with Odd and the other club members to hang out with, and baseball would (hopefully…) be a lot of fun for the spring semester… Overall, the year ahead was looking good. _Very good!_

He logged off the computer, swiveled his chair around, and pulled a plastic bag containing his favorite project out from where it was stored between his dresser and the still-packed luggage under his bed. It was a scale model of his airplane, a personal design project nearly 5 years in the making. It had already taken 3 weeks for him to finish _one_ of the two 5-foot-long wings, and that was _after_ finally deciding on which set of his numerous different plans to use. James looked the chosen design drawings over, examining the triangular truss fuselage that had been such a headache to get right, the tandem wings that would ensure stability in the air, the unique rudders that would join the two wings at their tips, and the pair of electric motors and short wooden propellers that would drive the small machine. All of it was designed and built about as well as an amateur could hope for. _And soon_, he thought, _I'll finally be finished with this model! Then it'll be time to flight-test her…_ For now, though, it was just an incomplete balsa skeleton, and James took great care to tuck it away where Kiwi couldn't see where it was kept.

"Whatcha working on? An airplane?" James nearly dropped the delicate wing as he spun around to see Odd looking over his shoulder.

"Aah… uh, hi, Odd! Heh, yeah, i-it's my own design for what's called an 'ultralight'." His heart was still racing. Odd had somehow gotten within a few feet of James' back without making a sound, and James usually considered himself pretty keen on his surroundings! _How the heck did you do that?!_ "Been working on the plans in some form or another for nearly 5 years, believe it or not, and it's close to being ready to build! I just want the flight experience from this model first…"

"Wait, ready to _build_? Do you mean you actually wanna _fly_ this thing?"

"Yeah, of course. I'm working on turning the design for this model into a full-size biplane! It's actually not as complex as you'd think, there are relatively few moving parts…"

Odd cut him off before he got too far into his techie talk. "That's mighty impressive. Do you want to do that for a living? Building airplanes?"

"Eventually, yeah. I don't know, it's just something I'm good at! What about you? I know you said digital graphics, but what exactly do you want to do?" Odd paused for a minute, digging around in the pile of papers on his desk, then handed a small stack of documents, pictures, and even a couple of CDs to James.

"Well, I'm already real good with editing music videos, drawing, and that sort of thing. I've even made a few short films, but I've decided I really want to try designing video games." As James flipped through the drawings, he had to admit that Odd had real talent! He had drawn several portraits of friends and former faculty that looked just as good as any photograph, and the covers of the CD cases offered a tantalizing glimpse of his abilities with computer editing.

"Oh, so you like video games? Me, too. I'm partial to first-person shooters, the World War 2 stuff in particular. I've got a head for urban tactics…"

"Yeah, they're all right, but I'm looking at something completely new: virtual-reality games. I've had… experience with them, and there's a lot of improvement to be made." He pointed out a watercolor concept image, painted on a sheet of typing paper, of a person standing in a computer-generated cityscape. It did seem to show a lot of potential.

"Hey, you definitely need a good eye for camera angles and graphics to get results like that! From what I can see, that's right up your alley."

"Yeah, that's the general idea. I'm no techie, but I know how to make a good picture. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with my pillow!" Odd flopped onto his bed as he spoke. "From the looks of things, tomorrow's going to be a long day, and this time I haven't even got anybody to talk to in class."

"See ya in the morning, then."

"G'night. You too, Kiwi… welcome to Texas, my little diggity-dog!"

Now, every other room in the building was falling into silence after a similar conversation, most students falling asleep and the night owls quietly doing something or other until they felt tired. However, the moment that Odd dozed off, a sound easily the equal of a chainsaw buzzed through the air! The vibrating sound seemed to _resonate_ from the cinder-block walls as Odd continued his long, deep _snore._ James' pained ears relayed a very short, very simple message to his aching brain: _Earplugs. You're going to __need__ earplugs! Geez, what'd he have for dinner, a jackhammer?! _Kiwi groggily looked up at his master's new roommate and, seeming to understand that this kid was unaccustomed to Odd's sleeping habits, let out a short bark that all-too-closely resembled a laugh.

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**Yes, laugh while you can, Kiwi... and snore while _you_ can, Odd! When I come back to finish this, I'll get you, my pretty... and your little dog, too! See, told you I'd do it.**


	3. First Impressions, Part 2

**Howdy, I'm back at last! I had to restrain myself to keep from jumping the gun again, but the resulting grammatical checks were worth the wait! Oh, man, there I go again with the nerdyness... Anyway, here's Chapter 2. Mostly, it's a means to establish James and Odd as friends in-story after their first meeting and prior to the events of Chapter 3. They'll be exciting events, I assure you...  
****Alright, I think that's about it... oh, please review. I need the feedback, people!  
Ryan Black out.**

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Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
19:05:37  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-2  
"First Impressions, Part 2"

Odd was right! The following day of meet-and-greet with his professors was _torturously_ long for him, and it was quickly apparent that the faculty at OPI wouldn't be a whole lot different than the teaching staff he'd had back at Kadic: smart, by-the-book, and willing to work with their individual students… to a point. If only Odd was a little bit less of a slacker!

Odd and I shared a handful of classes, Calculus and Biology among them, but for the most part we were on our own. Around noon, Odd stepped into Amanda Lake's English class and waited for the inevitable 'name-and-something-about-you' session that awaited him (and every other student in the western world) on the first day of the year. That Monday, with the beginning of classes, a new year had begun; one that would be chock-full of surprises. The first surprise for him came when a young man in a pastel-blue suit walked into the classroom, a teacher's assistant with something vaguely familiar about his appearance…

3 Days Later…

"Good afternoon, class, and welcome to English 101! I'm Mrs. Lake, your professor, and this is my teaching assistant, Ryan Delmas." Odd looked up from his desk, his attention drawn by something she'd just said. She sounded like a good teacher, her voice clear and calm, (not that Odd would be listening to it…) but the TA's name sent a short shiver down Odd's spine. Mrs. Lake gestured to the boy behind her. He was a few inches taller than Odd, built like a professional athlete, and had black hair and blue eyes that seemed far too familiar… It was the way he waved to the class and soaked up attention like a sponge that finally did the trick for Odd: Elizabeth "Sissi" Delmas, the daughter of Kadic Academy's principal Jean-Pierre Delmas, acted the same way. Odd knew _her_ all too well, and had in fact spent the last five years harassing her whenever possible! This TA had the same last name… _OK, relax, maybe he's not related. 'Delmas' is a common name…_

"Hello, everyone!" He even _sounded_ similar to Sissi's father… "I'm honored to help provide you all with the education you'll need for the future, and extremely excited to follow my uncle's example of leadership." _Maybe I've got nothing to worry about. He sounds much too smart to be related to Sissi!_ "He's the principal of a boarding school back at home, and my cousin Elizabeth tells me I'm every bit as smart as he is! I can only hope I can be just as good at handling authority as he is, too." _Well, so much for that idea. Just have to hope he doesn't recognize me from anything Sissi told him… I might be in trouble if he does!_ Sissi had been a pain just being his _classmate_, but if she'd had any _real_ authority… Odd shuddered to think what Sissi's cousin might do to the infamous Odd Della-Robbia if he found out he was here!

Mrs. Lake continued, "Alright. To start the year, I'd like to take some time to learn your names and get to know a few things about each of you. So, what we'll do is just go around the room and have everyone say your name, where you're from, and maybe an interesting thing or two about yourselves." Odd was in the 3rd seat back on the last row to the right in the relatively small room, so there was a chance he would go later in the class, and maybe avoid drawing Ryan's attention... "We'll go in alphabetical order, so… is Philip Dante present? No?" _Uh-oh…_

***

James Pierce walked out of his first class of the day, World History 102 (he'd placed well), and was immediately bowled over by a streak of purple that couldn't be mistaken for anything but his new roommate. Close on his heels was a blue-clothed college athlete seething with rage! Odd quickly got up and started running again. He was fast, too, but the guy behind him was _fuming_ with angry energy! James jumped up, adjusted the Air Force-issue cap on his head, and attempted to give chase.

"Making friends already, are we, Odd?" He shouted as he got closer.

"Well, sort of!" He turned his head back over his shoulder for a second, then turned it back. Ryan was gaining on him!

James chuckled. "Head up the main street, I'll help you shake him!" He split away from their northward path and headed east, toward the school's academic row. (All the academic buildings were built along the campus' main roadway, making it easier to get to and from different classes throughout the day.)

"Not likely, young man! I have a score to settle with Della-Robbia!" The twenty-something young man, with his black hair blowing back in the wind and dangerous blue eyes glaring at Odd, seemed to be moving even _faster_ now, prompting James to hurry! Odd didn't even bother to look back, leaning further forward than any other person on Earth would find possible to pick up more speed. He spun around and doubled back fast, dropping to the ground for a moment before taking off in the direction James had run. Ryan was hot on his heels again in _seconds_ after he somehow managed the impossibly sharp turn!

"Odd, turn here! Turn here!" James' voice came from an alleyway between the science and language arts buildings, and he didn't need to tell his new friend twice. He leaned far into the turn, sliding across the dry pavement (even in his brand-new sneakers) with the rapid change in direction, and sprinted toward his roommate's outstretched arm at the building's corner. James pulled him around the corner just before Ryan rounded the side of the building.

The south side of the campus' main street faced a secondary road, built a little bit closer than the designers would have liked, and on a lower elevation. This led to the hill leading down from the academic buildings cutting off at the secondary road's sidewalk, faced on the street side with an 8-foot-tall stone-and-mortar retaining wall. It made a perfect line-of-sight barrier!

"Watch this…" Thinking on his feet, Odd chucked a small rock that had been lying at the base of the building's stucco façade towards the visible top of the wall, grinning with satisfaction as the rugged stone glanced off the wall's white limestone, leaving a chalky mark and creating a resounding _crack_ as it bounced to the ground below. The handful of quick impacts on the concrete sidewalk below vaguely resembled fading footsteps, and apparently that was enough for Ryan Delmas!

"You're not getting away that easily, Della-Robbia!" He streaked past the corner where the two teens were holding their combined breath, only to let them release it as he followed the rock over the wall! "It would appear your little detour didn't work out so well after all…" He clambered down the wall's face and raced off down the side street, Odd and James watching from the top of the wall. James stifled a short laugh, then both boys began howling as soon as they saw Ryan round the corner a block away, sprinting as fast as his long, athletic legs could carry him!

"So, Odd," James wiped water from the corners of his eyes before he could continue. Ryan had been so _gullible_! He hadn't expected Odd's trick to actually _work_! "Why exactly was he chasing you?"

"You remember seeing a girl on one of my CDs, with black hair and a really dumb look on her face? Her name's Sissi, and I was her own personal cruel and unusual punishment back at Kadic."

"Yeah, you mentioned that yesterday. So?"

"That's her cousin…" Odd leaned against the building's wall, exhausted and out of breath from running and laughing. "…and my new English teacher's assistant!"

"Ooh… Man, what are the odds of that? So how'd you get on _his_ bad side? He can't be trying to beat you to a pulp _just_ for whatever you did to his cousin…"

"You'd be surprised!"

"Odd…" James didn't believe he could have done _anything _that serious!

"No, really! I once made Sissi think she was being haunted by some guy who died during my old school's construction…"

"Oh, come on! That's nothing."

"…got Yumi Ishiyama to steal her diary and blackmail her…" Odd was counting off on his fingers now.

James was just getting more curious. "Blackmail her for what?"

"I used Ulrich's phone to fool her into getting pounced on by a lovesick nerd _and _Kiwi twice in the same day…"

"Geez, maybe you have a point…"

"…and I even got away with swapping her facial mask for actual Kadic mud. Y'know, I still say she never looked better…" He turned in James' direction and the satisfied look he had on his face from listing his credits faded to a nervous mask that suggested he had just thought of something important.

James missed the facial cue and remarked, "Okay, I'll grant you that's some pretty good stuff. Why exactly did you…"

"Not to cut you off or anything, but y'know, there are two very good reasons for us to get out of here!"

James levered himself off the wall he'd been leaning on. "Oh, yeah? What?"

He started counting off on his left hand again. "First off, we're going to be late for Biology…"

"Ah, crap. On the first day, too!"

"Don't worry about it, I'd show up late all the time back at Kadic… sometimes I'd leave early, too!"

"I'll bet. What was the second thing?"

"I think _I_ know the answer to that." _Wha… that wasn't Odd._ James turned around to see Ryan Delmas standing _not two feet_ from his back, arms crossed and a stern look on his face. _Clearly my spatial awareness needs work. Oh, man, is he fast! He doesn't even look like he broke a sweat…_

"Uh, I think I'll head on to class now. Bye!" Odd took off running, Ryan on his heels, just as impossibly fast as before. James had never seen a person so active and energetic in his life!

***

James had never seen a person so lazy in his life! The two boys had barely made it into Biology on time, (intact) and were seated next to one another in the center-left of the room's square of student desks, but there was no one home in the seat next to James. Odd was dead asleep, just as he had been since the day's second round of greetings had finished. He wasn't missing too much, just a brief description of the coming coursework, but his inattention _was_ about to cost him.

"After that, we'll be studying the structure, uses, and formation process of DNA, the complex molecule that is the basis for all multicellular life on Earth. Who can tell me what the acronym 'DNA' stands for?" No volunteers were forthcoming, so Professor Brent Nosaj looked down at his roll-call clipboard. "How about… Mr. Della-Robbia? Odd? Are you here?" Odd gave a short snort of a snore, as if to answer in his sleep. James jabbed his roommate's side with a rather hard elbow.

"Hey, wha…" James twitched his head forward, giving Odd the idea. "Oh, ah, what was the question, sir?"

"Please don't let me catch you dozing off in my class again, Mr. Della-Robbia. Your principal warned the entire staff here about your track record in the sciences, and I'd like to be the first science instructor to see you excel! The question was what 'DNA' stands for."

"Aaah…" Odd looked very much like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming truck. "'DNA' stands for… um…"

A smart-looking kid sitting behind Odd smugly muttered the answer under his breath. Odd's eyes brightened, apparently managing to pick up on the correct response… "The oxygen rib's old nucleus is sick!" …Well, almost. The entire class was instantly roaring with laughter, students falling out of their seats and pounding on desks to get the hilarity out of their system! Even James, though he tried to keep a straight face, couldn't mask the color in his cheeks and the muffled laughter in his throat.

"Ah, no, Odd." Professor Nosaj had his face buried in his hand, clearly disappointed but trying to soften the blow. "The correct answer is 'deoxyribonucleic acid'. This should be review material for you, high school basics! Perhaps we need to talk after class?"

"Oh, boy…" Odd settled back into his seat. _This is going to be a long year…_

* * *

**Well, there it is. I told Odd I'd get him... and Delmas was almost fast enough! Next time I will be! I will be the most powerful Je... wait, I'm not doing this. I can't pull off angst, even in the form of a greiving Anakin Skywalker. Never mind... seeya next time, folks.**


	4. Birds of a Feather

**Hello, again! Y'know, up to now, that chase bit with Ryan's as close as this story's come to action. It's time to end that! ****Now, we get to see if I'm any good at narrating an action sequence: it's XANA-time!  
Minor though they are, Peter Toussain (one of the OPI archery students given a brief speaking role) and the Animal Control officer are my OCs. If you want 'em, (doubtful) you just need to ask first. Same with all the other OCs, in fact.  
****Thanks for your reviews, you happy few! I appreciate them greatly. Those of you who haven't, please do. You'll get a better story out of the deal!  
Ryan Black out.**

* * *

Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
19:17:42  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-3  
"Birds of a Feather"

The next month went pretty much like that first day. Odd was definitely a slacker in class, no doubt about it, but he was a loveable slacker. On the archery range, he continued to outclass me and the rest of the class, (and Jack, for that matter) and I was also slowly introduced to his extensive music collection… one unbearably loud and off-key karaoke night at a time! (I'm permanently banned from three floors of Tarkio Hall now.)

We learned all kinds of things about each other as the year wore on. He had six older sisters, (how he survived them, I didn't dare ask) I had one sister and my brother, both younger. My parents were from Oklahoma, his were from Italy and the Netherlands. (But they lived in New Zealand. Talk about your long-distance relations!) He was a brilliant artist, I was a good engineer. We were a perfect match, complete opposites able to coexist through a shared sense of sarcasm and humor!

I was especially interested in the stories he told about his group of friends from Kadic: Jeremie "Einstein" Belpois, Odd's roommate Ulrich Stern, Ulrich's 'not-my-girlfriend' Yumi Ishiyama, Odd's cousin Aelita Stones, (who was actually the DJ for many of those blasted CDs) and 'bad boy' William Dunbar. It sounded like a typical Kadic day revolved around cheap laughs at Sissi's expense, Odd's bottomless stomach, Ulrich and Yumi denying that they were anything but friends with William floating somewhere in the middle, and Jeremie disappearing to his room with Aelita to work on 'computer stuff'. For some strange reason, he always did cut off after bringing up 'computer stuff'. On September the 29th, I found out why…

1 Month Later…

"Odd, do you _ever_ actually pay attention, or am I your only way through these classes?"

"Oh, come on, what more do I need to know about birds than I already do? They're covered in feathers, they can fly, and a lot of them have big, sharp beaks. There's not much else to them!" The two roommates were just coming out of Biology again, 4 weeks into the course, and after a month of the same song and dance James was beginning to get annoyed with Odd's constant cheating off of his work.

"You _do _realize that you're talking to a diehard flyboy, right? Of all people, _I_ know the value of knowledge on our winged friends, and I can actually think of several exceptions to your definition of 'birds'." James picked up the pace, threading his way between shuffling students to get out of the building.

"Alright, so you know a lot about birds. I don't! Since when is that a crime?" Odd turned around a corner in the hall, trying to keep up with his rapidly moving roommate. "Whoa, where's the fire, 'Flyboy'? Are you heading back to our room again?" James had been skipping lunch for most of the week, spending the time finishing his project.

"Yeah, I'll be in our room for a while. I'm really close to completion, and you wouldn't believe how excited I am! I'll probably be able to bring it with me to the football field for archery practice later, test it there."

"You're worse than Einstein and his anti-virus! Ahem, well, you know where I'm going. It's spaghetti and meatballs today, so do you mind if I get your tray for you?" James turned to his short friend and allowed a curious grin to cross his face.

"Where does it all go, Odd? You eat extra portions at just about every meal, you're eight inches shorter than I am, and you don't grow an inch! Your metabolism must be…"

"My old school nurse couldn't figure it out, either. I'm just naturally svelte, that's all!" Odd flourished his 'svelte' gut with a quick forward step to emphasize his point. It was a move that stroked his ego more than anything else, James knew. Sometimes, it could be fun to just watch Odd be… well, odd!

"Wow, that's a word you don't hear too often… Anyway, sure, you can have my portion if you want it. See ya at archery practice, pal!" James took the stairs of the science building two at a time, and Odd's pace also quickened as the two parted ways. They both had somewhere important to be (for them, at any rate), and neither wanted to waste a second!

***

James was sweating with anticipation and exertion as he bounded up the stairs. He walked in the door of his dorm room, catching his breath for a minute as the lights slowly came up. They were fluorescent (the Odessa Polytechnic Institute was a stickler for eco-friendliness) and set on a dimmer, which made them annoyingly slow to reach their full power. James sat down at his desk and uncovered his nearly-finished airplane model. He leaned back for a moment and analyzed the structure he'd spent nearly two months now building. From nose to tail, it was a fine piece of work for an inexperienced modelmaker, every piece fitting together perfectly as the airplane finally supported itself on the desk. He removed the bracing that he'd attached the day before to keep the whole thing together as the last bits of glue holding the wings to the fuselage (at very precise angles to one another) set overnight. The last things he had to do were to add the two electric motors and the 9-inch propellers that would drive the model in flight, and then calibrate the controls' radio unit. Light began filtering through the window at the end of the room as the clouds of the morning started to dissipate outside.

It was probably a good thing he was nearly finished. He'd been in here all week, and his friends around the school were probably wondering what was up. He didn't want to slip back into his old reclusive habits, and knew that he needed to get back out there. James checked the time on his watch and began wondering what was taking Odd so long. Even the double portion of spaghetti he was attacking in the cafeteria shouldn't have taken his friend The Human Stomach _that_ long to inhale! _Ah, well. He'll be at archery practice in a little bit. No reason to rush... _He returned to his work, carefully measuring the space for the forward motor housing.

***

Odd was in the cafeteria at that very moment, cleaning the parmesan cheese off his face after consuming both trays of spaghetti in what was, for him, a record time. There had been a long line by the time he showed up, but the school's food was worth the wait, in his opinion! _Better than Kadic's, anyway. Sorry, Rosa! _He thought about heading over to the football field to get in a little extra time for target practice, but reconsidered as he realized that he'd left his crossbow in the dorm room. Odd groaned at the idea of crossing the campus to retrieve it, but just as he started to jog back to the dorm his cell phone rang in his pocket.

"Hello? Oh, hey. Yeah, I just finished. Record time, too! Well, I stopped to talk to Rebecca, then ended up at the back of the line… No, from Calculus. Yeah, if only she felt that way… oh well, her loss! Hey, I forgot my crossbow, could you bring it out with you? The arrow should be on the string… No, it can't shoot without the guard… okay, I'll keep them separate from now on, all right?! Thanks, James, see ya at the field!" The call cut off abruptly, and Odd slowed his pace as he turned around toward the gym complex. _Well, that solves that problem._

***

Just north of the nearby town of Midland, a cell tower sparked slightly as one of the large white transmission dishes went out, short-circuiting due to a sudden power surge. A dead deer beneath the enormous steel tower had drawn a large number of vultures to the site, the sky around it now thick with the ravenous carrion birds. A mere 30 yards away from the tower ran a highway, the roadway thick with afternoon traffic. None of the passing drivers took the time to notice a sickly electrical arcing when it coursed after the scavengers and electrocuted them all… without any apparent effect. What the drivers _did_ take notice of, moments later, was the massive flight of ragged black wings and hooked beaks that lifted off from their unfinished meal and flew southward down the highway toward the center of Midland, oblivious to the now-panicked drivers of the cars below them.

***

Odd crossed the highway leading to the football field, rushing to avoid an oncoming van. He was straddling the concrete median when he heard a faint sound from above and behind him. He ignored the annoying buzz and waited for a break in the flow of traffic along the 4-lane road in front of him, and then ran across. _Whose bright idea was it to put the athletic buildings across a highway from the school?_

There were safer ways to get to the stadium, of course, under the two overpasses flanking the school campus. But the students had found that going straight over the highway was a much faster route, and drivers in the area had even gotten in the habit of slowing down as they approached the athletic facility and allowing the students time to cross at the most popular point. It was a new tradition that irked police, but it was becoming more and more accepted with every new year. Checking his watch, Odd broke into a light jog as he realized he was a few minutes behind schedule. Coach Lafitte had a reputation of getting after tardiness with a vengeance, and Odd didn't want to be on the receiving end of _that_ talk.

That weird buzzing sound broke his concentration again for a moment, and he then realized that it was getting louder. _If it's behind me, and I'm running, how is it getting louder? _He turned to the source of the noise and gave a short shout as a winged creature flew low toward his head, sending him tumbling over as he avoided its threatening body. Out of reflex, he twisted and tucked into the fall, rolling along the ground at impact and coming up in a kneeling position, left arm braced against his right and raised futilely at his flying attacker. As the winged thing turned back out of the sun, Odd suddenly recognized it. The two wings, the triangular body, and the unique buzzing sound were all extremely familiar, and Odd lowered his bare arm back to his side as he stood and turned. Standing on the street corner behind him, out of breath from running but still cackling maniacally, was his roommate James Pierce. He waved, his other hand holding the controller for the balsa wood airplane that had scared Odd into his humorous defensive posture.

"Heh heh heh, I think you forgot something there, good buddy!" James gestured toward Odd's crossbow jutting out of his backpack as he landed and retrieved the now-completed model. "Man, I was expecting a good fall, but that roll was really impressive! If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you knew it was coming!"

"Oh, come on, you can't surprise _me_!" Odd's wounded pride shone through every word, and he knew it. "Your little plane's pretty quick, but I heard it coming a mile away!"

"Whatever you say, Odd. _Whatever_ you say…"

"When did you decide to pull that one?" Now he was just irritated.

"When I saw you running by on my way to the football field. I had just finished my model, and figured this was a good opportunity for… flight testing, shall we say? Oh, if only I had a camera, that was priceless! As you can tell, it works great, although crossing the street with the controller was a real trick."

The two buddies finished poking fun at each other, picked up their belongings and hurried on toward the archery range, now expecting an earful from Jack about showing up late.

***

The flight of vultures coming up the highway caused pandemonium as they entered Midland. It was very unusual for so many of the scavengers to fly together in a place where there was nothing to feed on, so even local news groups began to take interest in the massive anomalous formation. It began to appear that the strange carrion birds had a specific destination in mind somewhere south along the highway. A few opportunistic hunters even tried shooting at the birds as they crossed into open territory, but were disappointed when none of the creatures scattered to be picked off. They simply continued on, apparently oblivious to the attention they drew as their outstretched wings carried them even farther southward… toward Odessa.

***

"Pierce, Della-Robbia, where were you two?" The gruff voice of Jack Lafitte boomed across the vacant field, despite the boys being just feet from their instructor. Jack had taken special interest in the two of them ever since an incident about 2 weeks before involving his beloved (and flammable) lawn chair, and took every opportunity he could to keep them in line.

"I forgot my crossbow in our room, and we went back to go get it. It won't happen again, sir." It was halfway true, and Odd had tried to modify his tone to make it more believable.

"See that it doesn't. Now, the both of you, 2 laps and then get to shootin'!" Well, it had nearly worked!

Odd and James groaned at the prospect of the half-mile jog before practice, made worse because it took them directly in front of the other archers practicing near the end zone. Shrugging their shoulders in submission, they dropped their things and started running adjacent to Jack's shaded seat at the 30-yard line. Odd quickly outdistanced James despite his height disadvantage, a testament to his athleticism. James had become a marginally good runner in his time with the Civil Air Patrol, (an Air Force cadet program which was also where he'd picked up his well-worn BDU cap) but he had fallen out of even that little practice in the 2 years since he'd left that group. He'd always been an academic, not an athlete, but he prided himself on his tenacity (most people call it stubbornness) and was usually able to keep up with at least the basic activities in P.E. Still, Odd had him beat by a mile… or in this case, about one-fourth of a mile. Settling into his pace, James concentrated on the task ahead as Odd raced around the second turn.

***

Odd redoubled his energy coming out of the turn, the third on his second lap around the quarter-mile track. He'd already passed James up once and was coming around the opposite side of the track, about to finish, when he heard a rushing sound in the air behind him.

"You've got to be kidding me, again!? Well, not this time, James!" Odd sped up, pushing his limits as he neared the finish. If James wanted to catch him with that plane again, he'd have to fly it faster than that! Air rushed by his face as he bent double, cutting his drag as he tried to outrun the flying nuisance behind him. He knew James would be watching from wherever he had the RC controller, dumbfounded as he tried to figure out how Odd could keep his balance at that angle.

Odd chuckled in a knowing manner. _If only he knew where I learned to run like this…_ As he passed Jack's seat, he jumped, angling off to the side as he rolled to a stop and turned back to his left, waiting to see the little plane fly by when James couldn't make that sharp turn. Instead, what he saw was James still running on the other side of the track, with no controller in sight. Confused, he turned to his rear… and shouted in pain as a mass of black feathers and talons collided with him!

***

James turned to his left when he heard his roommate cry out, Odd's panicked tone suggesting that something was _very_ wrong. He could see his friend on the ground across the field from him, but that was about all he had time to really see before slowing to a stop as his gut tightened into a frightened knot. Odd was rolling around, trying to avoid a winged _horror_ that was attacking him without mercy! The monstrous bird resembled a vulture, but was far too large and ragged in appearance to be any natural creature. Instantly, James froze to his place. _This can't be happening…_

"Guys, move! Get outta here!" Jack was shouting at the students on the field as he ran to Odd's aid. "Della-Robbia, duck!" Jack kicked the large, but lightly-built creature with all the force in his angry left leg. It landed heavily nearby, staying deathly still… until it began flickering like a candle going out.

_Wait… flickering?! Living things don't flicker! What the heck is that thing?!_

"Aaah!" James was torn from his petrified state as he realized that Odd was still badly hurt and in need of help. Running over to his friend, he quickly assessed the damage. It looked like the creature had surprised him from behind and bitten a deep gash into his right shoulder, then cut his back up in the frenzy of talons. Only the shoulder hit looked very serious, but he was still bleeding pretty badly.

"Odd! Are you alright, can you move?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, but I think that bird's going to need attention! You happen to know where the nearest psych ward is?" Odd's voice seemed remarkably calm given the circumstances, even if it did lack most of his usual energy and enthusiasm.

"Actually, I just might, but it probably doesn't matter. All that _does_ for now is that it's getting back up, so we need to move!" Odd stood up, cringing and falling back to the ground as he put pressure on a broken right leg. James got his shoulder underneath his injured friend and they ran together while Jack dealt with the seemingly dazed (and now fully tangible) bird. Struggling just to remain upright, it showed no apparent effort to avoid the coming impact, and collapsed to the ground with a crunch as Jack, former kickboxer that he was, outdid himself. Meanwhile, all of the students watching the action unfold from the firing line were suddenly screaming and scrambling to get their stuff together, pointing skyward as they ran away in a panic. James grabbed his plane and backpack while Odd strapped the crossbow to his left arm to keep it out of the way.

"Alright, you two, relax. That demon bird ain't movin', I think it's done!" Jack was walking over to them, his face showing relief and concern for his wounded student.

"Sir, what do you mean, 'relax'?!" Peter Toussain, one of the other archers-in-training, was running past them as fast as his legs would carry him. "We need to get out of here fast if all _those_ are like _that_ thing!" He pointed up, and Jack's face fell as he turned to the sky. James looked as well, going white at what he saw. A _horde_ of the vulture-things was circling above, each one as massive and terrifying as the monster that had taken the bite out of Odd! Ragged black wings seemed to blur with the speed of flight, and he could almost smell the reeking scent of rotting meat on their hooked beaks. They seemed like evil sentinels, watching from above with eyes tuned to the hunt.

_Now,_ James thought, _they're seeing their chance: a lot of the humans below are running, and one is hurt too badly to move!_ Indeed, as he watched, they began to dive in, dividing into small groups as their huge wings tucked into their muscular torsos. Something about their behavior didn't seem right…

"What are these vultures doing? They're supposed to be scavengers… poachers, not pack hunters!"

"Hey, Flyboy, we don't need to hear their life stories, we just need to get out of here!" For once, James didn't argue with Odd's simple logic. He and Jack picked Odd up by his shoulders and, together, ran him to the nearest enclosed space: the basketball court. Jack burst through the metallic double-doors, slamming them shut after Odd limped in supported on James' shoulder. The flock of scavengers behind them seemed to be disoriented for a moment, then flew straight into the wall that shielded their quarry, ramming the doors with stunning force as Jack held them shut.

"Any bright ideas, kid?" Jack said to James. "I'm not gonna be able to hold this forever! Those things are a heck of a lot stronger than they look!" Emphasizing his point, a portion of the left door buckled inward under another impact!

James tried to think of a solution. "Odd, do you have your phone on you?"

"Yeah! Wait… no signal. That's not good…" He sounded more concerned about the lost signal than James thought appropriate, but then, he _was_ the one bleeding out.

"Try 911 anyway. They usually keep an emergency line open, independent of normal cell service!" Odd dialed the number and, to his immense relief, heard a response from a female dispatcher.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"Uh, I don't know exactly how to put this, but we're trapped in a basketball court being attacked by a swarm of superpowered vultures, and I've got a broken leg and a gaping hole in my shoulder!" James' face went white.

"Odd, don't make this sound like a joke! What if she doesn't believe you? We could be stuck here…"

"Relax! She heard about the vultures on the radio. They came here from Midland, and there are lots of witnesses. Yes, ma'am, we're on the OPI campus… You'll want to send SWAT, too. No, I mean it!" Odd clicked the phone off as he settled back to the floor. "She's sending Animal Control, but they won't be here for 15 minutes!"

"So we're on our own. _Wonderful_…" Jack looked pained as the birds directed another ferocious blow at the double doors. A sickening snap could be heard as the locking mechanism between the two doors gave way under the onslaught, allowing them to swing open for a brief moment! Before the birds could make use of the breach, James helped Jack slam them shut.

"I can't hold this, Pierce!" Jack was shouting as he shifted his sweaty grip, clearly very concerned. "We need to either get out of here, which we can't, or find somethin' to jam the doors shut."

"Yeah, we need to find a first-aid kit for Odd, too. If the police are going to be another 15 minutes, he'll need some attention before they arrive."

"This is a gym, right? There should be a first-aid kit in the supply closet, for the basketball games!" Odd tried to stand and help, but the blood loss had him too weak. "You might even find something in there for the door." He made an awful lot of sense under pressure!

James tried the door. "It's locked."

Odd was unmoved. "The ceiling tiles aren't!" James raised an incredulous eyebrow. "I used to get all sorts of places through the ceiling, it's not as hard as it looks!" Skeptical, James rolled a basketball cart over to the door, climbed up on it, and lifted away a single 3-foot square tile. He slid it aside to indeed reveal a 5-foot gap above the tiles, packed with wires and air ducts. _Odd, I probably shouldn't even ask about what you did with this in France! _James scurried up into the gap, spreading his weight as much as possible on the suspended gypsum tiles until he was over the supply closet. He slid another tile away and, careful not to land on anything, dropped down on the balls of his feet. James pulled the first-aid kit and a toolbox from the neatly organized shelves and unlocked the closet. Walking over to the besieged doorway, he handed Odd the bright orange case.

"Nothing in there large enough for the door, but this should help you." James could have helped Odd with the medical kit, but he had another problem. "Coach, are you doing all right?"

"What do _you_ think, Pierce?!" He spoke through clenched teeth, muscles straining to hold back the tide of birds assaulting the doors he was holding. He wouldn't be able to keep them shut for very long, and once the doors failed they wouldn't be able to hold the vultures off long enough for the police to arrive!

Desperate, James looked the gym's bleachers over, wondering if they could be moved to block the door. They were lightweight enough for the three of them together to move, made of an angular steel frame and aluminum-sheet seats, but were bolted into the floor at their four corners. Remembering the toolbox he'd gotten from the closet, James opened it, looking for a wrench. To his relief, there were two in there, but his hopes were shattered when both were too small for the bleacher bolts.

"Okay, guys, we are in _big_ trouble…" He looked at the weakening Jack Lafitte and the injured Odd Della-Robbia, realizing that they were counting on him. That led him to analyze the situation once more, and he came to a sobering fact. They had three options: hide, run, or fight. Looking at his watch, the animal-control cops were due to arrive in about 8 minutes. Jack couldn't hold the doors that long, so hiding was not an option. With Odd hurt like he was, running was out of the question, leaving just one choice. They had to fight these things, but that, too, was impossible! They had nothing more dangerous than Odd's single crossbow bolt, and the birds were obviously too strong for brute force to be effective. So, if there was nothing in the building useful as a weapon... _that's the answer!_

"Uh, sir, are there any back ways out of here?"

"Yeah, there's the visitor entrance in the hall by the bathrooms, but we can't run away from these things with Odd like he is!"

"I don't plan to. Just keep the doors shut until I get back, and open 'em _quick_ when you hear me coming… I'm going to be in a lot of trouble!"

"WHAT!?"

"James, what're you…" Odd was cut off by James' focused indifference as he sprinted by. He ran to the end of the basketball court, where the hall to the visitor's entrance was located. He slammed through the doors, making sure they closed behind him as he ran around the building. _This may be the most idiotic thing I've ever done… _He settled into the fastest running pace he could and raced away from the closed door. Oddly enough, there were none of the vultures waiting for him at that end of the building. _There's no way this can be that easy… _Sure enough, as James cleared the corner of the white stucco wall, he heard a grating 'Caw!' from the direction of the door, and a flurry of black feathers stirred at the edge of James' vision. He ran on, trying to pay no attention to his pursuers and focus on running. He chuckled to himself, thinking: _If only I'd had this kind of motivation when I ran for that Airman First-Class promotion! I just might've made it… _True, it was a moment of misplaced humor as he ran for his life, but it was still funny!

***

"What's that fool boy think he's doing?" Jack was leaning out the dented doors, watching James' seemingly suicidal sprint with an incredulous and terrified look frozen to his face. "He's gonna get himself killed! I gotta go help him…"

"No, wait," Odd grabbed at Jack's ankle as he turned to leave, "I think I know what he's doing." Odd peeked around the doorframe to watch his friend dodge a bird that was lunging at him. "We can't keep them out forever, so he's probably looking for a way to buy time. We'll need to fight those vultures off until the police get here, so he might be trying to get the bows and stuff from the football field!"

"Well, that still don't mean he's bein' smart. He'll never make it back with those things all over 'im!" Odd started thinking of some way to buy James time. There was _nothing_ that would dissuade these birds from their prey, he knew it, so that left killing them. His crossbow could take down a vulture, (at least, he thought it could) but he only had one shot to use. How could he bring down the entire flock? _I've only got one shot… but how many will it take? _Then, it came to him. _Jeremie would love this…_

"Jack, is there a screwdriver in that toolbox?"

"Uh, yeah, and a couple of ol' screws, too. Why?"

Odd started taking the crossbow off of his arm and said, "Perfect! I'll show you…"

***

James was approaching the object of his mad rush when the apparent leader of the flock of manic vultures caught up with him. It slammed heavily into his back, pitching him forward onto the football field's carefully maintained grass. James grabbed his glasses from where they'd fallen, rolled left to avoid the long, sharp talons that dug into the dirt where his torso used to be, and sprung back to his feet, running like mad to get to the archery equipment just a few yards away. His panicked breath came in ragged gasps, adrenaline coursing through his veins as he continued on his way. The bird that had tackled him was slowed for a moment returning to the air, which was just enough to slow the horde behind him and allow James the short time he needed to get to his destination: the archery range! When the other students had fled, they'd dropped their equipment wherever was most convenient, so all James had to do was scramble to select his weapons.

He snatched up two of the school's store-bought longbows and a nearly-full cardboard tube of arrows, slipped one bow onto his right shoulder by its string, and readied the other to fire. Turning to the rapidly closing formation of vultures, James pulled back the string and picked out a target. He could hear Odd's favorite shooting tip in the back of his mind: _Picture where the arrow will go when you fire it, you'll usually end up closer that way. _He waited until that mental picture looked right to him and then released the bowstring, sending the aluminum arrow shaft flying straight at the leader! He allowed himself a moment of cocky pride as it buried itself in the bird's open beak, causing it to drop violently to the ground as it was rendered immobile.

James chuckled to himself. "Not much fun when you're not the hunter, is it?" Like the vulture Jack knocked down, it flickered in an extremely unsettling and very unnatural way, and tried aggressively to get back up before appearing to revert to a normal size and stay down. The formation behind the stricken scavenger was in utter leaderless confusion for the briefest of moments, which was all James needed to string another arrow. He ran as he shot again, picking off two more of the vultures (not hard, given the density of the flock) before getting around the crazed formation and starting the run back to the gym.

As he started to sprint, however, he realized he wasn't going to make it. He'd _barely_ made it out to the field without being mauled, and he hadn't been carrying the bulky box of arrows or been worn out from the initial run! His chest was already heaving with the exertion, and his legs and throat physically ached with every step and every breath. As he passed the tail end of the flock of evil birds, he saw the entire formation begin to turn around in his peripheral vision. The vultures screeched at James with primal fury, flapping their broad black wings to move faster than he would have ever thought possible.

_This is hopeless…_ James pushed himself as far as he could, but his resolve wasn't enough. His tiring muscles gave out, dropping him to his knees, and James braced himself for the fatal impact. Just as the first vulture came within striking distance, however, a loud buzzing sound filled the air. The attacking bird barely had time to turn toward the new sound before it stiffened and fell to the ground as a small aluminum blade hit it dead-center in the torso! James looked up and nearly cried for joy at what he saw in front of him.

Odd was at the gym door a hundred yards away. He was leaning on Jim and working the controls of James' model… which had fired the crossbow bolt!

"Hey Flyboy, not to rush you or anything, but those birds don't look too happy to see you! What'd you do, step on an egg?" He continued to circle the 5-foot-long airplane, threatening any bird that got close enough to harm James with his crossbow. The plane didn't have a second bolt to shoot, but (fortunately for James) these vultures didn't know that! He got back to his feet, the adrenaline of the moment providing his second wind, and raced toward the gym. The mad scavengers scattered to avoid the 'dangerous' flying machine as Odd made another run on them, slowing them down just long enough to get James back through the shattered doors. As James ran inside, Odd tried to fly the model back, but the powerful vultures finally recognized the trick and effortlessly brought James' aircraft down, tearing off the fabric-covered rear wing and ripping the carefully assembled fuselage apart. While the rabid birds finished their brutal take-down, Odd hobbled back through the hopelessly smashed doorway and James handed the second bow off to Jack.

"Sorry, Odd," James huffed and puffed through his teeth, "but I didn't have time to grab a third bow. Hey, I owe you a big one, man! You just saved my aft end from a _very_ unpleasant chewing!"

"Hey, no problem. You know, you're the one with a right to be mad. I _did_ just toss 2 months of your hard work to a flock of evil, Xanafied vultures!" James paused for a moment in preparing his bow.

"Evil _what_? And hey, since when am I 'Flyboy'?"

"I'll tell ya later. Watch it!" A vulture had just burst through what was left of the doors, knocking them from their hinges, but was stopped cold by an arrow from Coach Lafitte before it could get to James or Odd.

"Whoa… Thanks, Coach."

"No problem, kid!" The P.E. teacher seemed pleased that his aim was so good today. "That was a gutsy move you pulled, running out there like that! Insane and suicidal, but bold."

"Ah, it was necessary. I find it's a heck of a lot easier to do stuff when you absolutely _have to_. Also, I wouldn't have made it back anyway if not for… Duck!" Another carrion bird fell to the ground, pierced through its flight muscles. "Y'know, I usually LIKE birds! Kind of ironic, from a certain point of view."

"There's nothin' ironic about it, kid. These things just ain't natural!" As Jack spoke, three more of the terrifying beasts slammed through the open doorway, screeching a shrill tone of victory as they caught James without another arrow to shoot! Jack got one, but the other two were still coming on, much too fast…

_This is it…_ James braced for the pain… and opened his eyes to see the birds fleeing! The sound of sirens filled the air as the animal control officers finally arrived, 2 minutes late.

"Whew, finally!" Jack was visibly relieved, even if he was a little annoyed. "Maybe now that they're _here_, those guys can actually _help_ us with these rats with wings!" The policemen scrambled out of their cars and fanned out, taking control of the area with practiced precision. As they did so, however, the remaining vultures scattered! The aggressive scavengers flew in all directions, a handful of them slashing at the police officers' vehicles as they flew off. Jack was relieved, if a bit worried for Odd. James was still trying to catch his breath and recover from his near-death experiences. Odd was nothing short of _infuriated_.

"You're kidding me! They attack us when we're alone, then run at the first sign of police?" His indignation was _permeable_ as he shook his fist in frustration. "Come back here, you cowards!"

"Hey, Odd, don't encourage them!" James snapped, just happy to be in one piece. "I don't know what made them freak out like that," he hesitated, "but I'm going to hope it was a fluke!"

The AC officer in charge approached the gym's battered doorway. "I'm so sorry it took us so long getting here, but there was something wrong with the traffic lights! What the heck _were_ those things? I've seen vulture attacks before, but those were definitely _not_ ordinary birds!"

"Well, whatever they were, you've got a sample of them!" Jack kicked the body of the vulture he'd shot the minute before.

"I have to tell you, I'm amazed you survived those things! Well done, guys, now let's get out of here and see about your injuries." James looked over at Odd and noticed that he didn't look at all relieved. In fact, Odd just seemed _really_ worried.

"Hey, Odd? It's over. The vultures are gone and they've got a paramedic to look after your shoulder, what's the problem?"

"The problem, James, is that it's _not_ over. I really thought it was…" James was shaken to his core to see a direly serious expression on his friend's usually cheerful face. With that, Odd limped off to get his shoulder patched up and left his friend wondering what he'd meant.

* * *

**Well, what did you think? I'm really nervous on this one, (mostly because it's so unlike the others so far) so please review it and tell me how it was. If it was good, I've got nothing to worry about. If not, I need to edit and improve. Just please... REVIEW THE BLASTED CHAPTER! (slap!) What just happened? The last thing I remember was a really mean kitten, and now my throat hurts a lot... See you all later!**


	5. Captive Audience

**Howdy, y'all! It took me a while, (just look at the length of this thing!) but here it is, Chapter 4! The plot this time around will basically revolve around Odd's little secret finally getting out. Read and review!  
Ryan Black out.**

* * *

Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
19:29:34  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-4  
"Captive Audience"

News about the vulture incident quickly spread outward from west Texas, eventually reaching my home in San Antonio… as well as the rest of the English-speaking world. My parents, of course, were worried sick, and my entire family took a weekend to visit the school and reassure themselves that I was alright. My little brother Samuel even took a few of the feathers from the vulture I shot as _souvenirs_! Odd's family was equally (if not even more) concerned, but for obvious reasons didn't quite make it out from New Zealand. They did get a little irritating with their constant phone calls for that first week, but if you ask me it was understandable!

The attack attracted interest from all walks of life as numerous scientists began studying the remains of the dead vultures, hoping to learn the cause of their sudden aggressive behavior. It caused an especially huge stir in Odessa, and made Odd and I into school celebrities overnight. Heck, it drew more attention than even the oh-so-flamboyant Odd liked having, never mind the borderline recluse that is me! We both asked for (and received) permission from the dean of students to lie low for a week, letting the shock die down and giving Odd some time to heal. We didn't see Jack around for a while, either, so it could be assumed that he wasn't too comfortable with all the attention himself.

After that, Odd started disappearing during the day, searching for something in Midland anytime he had a few hours to himself. At the time, I didn't know what he was looking for or why, but on October 30th it managed to find him first…

1 Month Later…

"Crap. Come on, stupid glue, set!" James slumped back in his chair, his left hand turning white as he tried to hold two pieces of wood together. It was Saturday now, three weeks back into the normal routine, and James was in his room still patching up the damage to his model plane. It had been a lifesaver, but he hadn't had time to officially put it through its paces. Odd had left early that morning, as he had every day he could for the entire month, and hadn't returned yet. James was concerned about his still-injured friend running around all the time, but the damage to his shoulder had mostly faded away, (another impressive tribute to the boy's metabolism) and his busted right leg was still in a cast, (he got around on crutches) so there didn't seem to be any cause for serious alarm.

One thing that _did_ worry James was Odd's mood. Since the incident, he'd gotten back into the swing of things, but hadn't really been his usual cheerful self. The sarcastic wit, weird behavior, scrapes with Jack and Ryan, and even the obscene appetite had all been there, but his friend just seemed hollow… like he was being distracted by something. There was just something about his friend the joker appearing to be so deathly serious about _anything_ that made James uneasy. _I'll have to catch Odd when he comes back this time and ask him about it…_

James shrugged his shoulders and went back to the frustrating task of reassembling the intricate fuselage of his shattered masterpiece. _If only Odd hadn't driven the screws for the crossbow mounting right through the main truss!_ The plane would have been much easier to rebuild without the deep slices that now ran through the primary support structure, but, as it was, he was down to using the original plans to completely recreate the complex build.

Kiwi was bouncing off the walls like an oversized rubber ball, his energetic barking making James nervous that the little dog might jump up on his desk and knock his delicate day's work over! Still, Kiwi needed the exercise, so he decided to let it slide. _Odd better get back soon, though, or the little guy might get bored and start messing with me!_ Kiwi seemed to like doing that lately, with Odd like he was.

***

Odd, at that particular moment, was getting extremely frustrated. It had been a _month_, and he still had no leads on the source of the vulture attack! None! He'd been running all over the town of Midland, where the demon-bird flock had first been sighted, and still hadn't found anything to show where they'd come from. He was a tenacious individual, no doubt about it, but four weeks of looking for something he couldn't identify in a town he didn't know (on crutches, no less) and coming up dry was beginning to wear on him. If he couldn't find anything, he'd have to call his friends back to say he'd come up dry, and they would _not_ be happy about that!

Odd knew _why_ the birds had attacked him. He'd seen the unnatural flickering, impossible strength, and a funny look in their eyes before, and he knew that it was all bad news. Recalling a couple of particularly bad related memories, he tried desperately to remember anything about the attack that could help in his search.

_Let's see… what would Jeremie tell me? Logic… who, what, when, where, and why. The who and the why are easy, the what is obvious and I know the when, but the_ where_… how did they find me?!_

"That's it!" Odd checked himself for anything that could be used to track him, then realized that the answer was in his pocket: his cell phone! He'd used it to talk to James before leaving for the football field, and had then lost his signal when trying to call for help. So, it was his cell phone that had allowed the vultures to locate him. That meant he had to find out where the cell phone got its signal!

_Remind me to get a new phone. _He shifted his backpack to a more comfortable position and shuffled back to the highway, catching a bus back to the OPI campus. At this rate he couldn't pick up the trail alone, but he knew where he could find at least one person who might be willing to help.

***

James stopped piecing together the new fuselage. Kiwi was getting antsy, so he decided to cover up the incomplete structure and play with him, if only to keep him distracted until Odd got back. He turned around in his chair to see Kiwi, apparently anticipating his decision, sitting not three feet from his chair… holding a short, knotted rope in his narrow mouth.

"Alright, little guy! You think you're pretty strong, don't you? Well, let's see you beat this!" James grabbed the loose end of the rope, tugging on it with all the strength in his right arm. Kiwi's eyes glinted at the challenge, and he pulled back. James was stunned. Kiwi was amazingly strong for his size! The dog was jumping around, growling furiously as he tried to get the upper hand on his big friend, and James did all he could to keep from losing his balance in the chair.

"Man, Odd must have a really good arm to get you pulling like that!" Kiwi gave a particularly arrogant-sounding bark. "Oh, a big shot now, are ya? Well, come on!" He decided to prove his own strength to the overconfident mutt by bringing his left hand down to the rope as well, giving a single sharp pull that would yank Kiwi right into his lap with a tiny canine yelp. Instead, Kiwi turned to the door at that exact moment, releasing the rope as he seemed to hear something outside. The rope went limp in James' hands, the now-useless force of his mighty yank propelling him backward and onto the hard mat underneath his desk! He got back up onto his knees, his pride the only real casualty of the pratfall.

"You must think that was _real_ funny, Kiwi, ha ha… Hey, something wrong?" Kiwi was not moving an inch, just growling at the door as his ears went flat against the back of his head and his lips curled back to reveal his sharp-looking teeth in a wicked snarl. He was intensely angry at _something_ outside that door, and was even worrying James now! The dog gave a quick yelp, twitched around a bit, and turned to look at his stunned roommate. James blinked, almost sure he saw the incensed little mutt become _physically darker_ for a moment as his furious growl built steadily to a crescendo, taking on the vocal tones of a dog possessed! James stared at the door, wondering what was bothering the little mutt so badly. The doorknob turned, Kiwi sank into a pouncing position… and Odd burst into the room!

"Hey, James, think you could give me a hand with something? It's really important…"

"First, Odd, I think you need to check on Kiwi. He's been growling, nearly pounced on you coming in… he's acting like someone he_ hates_ is nearby. He almost had me scared!"

"Kiwi can wait. This is a matter of life and death!" James mouth hung wide open. _What?! Odd's ignoring a problem with Kiwi?! This really _must_ be serious…_

"Alright, you have my attention. What do you need?"

"Well, I've spent the last three weeks trying to hunt down those vultures that attacked us."

"Odd, those birds could have come from anywhere…"

"Let me finish! I haven't had much luck yet, but I got a tip today that had to do with a cell phone tower. Do you know how to find the nearest one?" As James started to think of a plan, Kiwi barked again. He settled back into his pouncing stance, leaped halfway across the small room, landed on and turned the door handle, and raced away from the dorm room, barking loudly all the way.

"Oh, crap… Kiwi!" That dog couldn't be seen in daylight, or else he and Odd would both have a very serious problem on their hands! James grabbed his hat and shoes, Odd snatched up his crutches, and they took off after the rapidly escaping dog. Outside, Kiwi seemed to be waiting for them, taking off (still barking like mad) the very moment James stepped out the building's door. The mixed-breed troublemaker ran slightly north… straight up the main road of the campus. James groaned. The wannabe hound dog was probably chasing something, and wouldn't listen to him or (quite likely) even Odd until he caught it! Picking up his relatively slow pace to keep up with the quick little canine, James heard the last thing he wanted to hear at that exact moment:

"What is that dog doing here? Pierce!" It was also the last _person_ that Odd wanted to hear that from: Professor Jonathan Black. The history teacher and former marathon runner hated dogs, (the result of an unfortunate childhood incident with a German shepherd) and he was also the only member of the school staff aside from Coach Lafitte who might actually be able to catch both James and Kiwi!

"Oh, _great_…" Odd spun around on his crutches and struggled to match James' pace, following the mad little dog as he ran off-campus. Seeing his master Odd now on his tail, Kiwi looked a bit more apprehensive and even slowed down a bit, but kept right on running after whatever it was he was chasing.

"Odd, I think he's chasing something, and I can't get him to snap out of it!"

"Yeah, trust me, there's no stopping him! Relax, though, I think we can lose the Runny Professor when Kiwi makes it to the golf course, and then we just have to figure out a way to sneak Kiwi back to our room."

"The golf course? What makes you think he's going there?"

"He went there the last four times he ran off!"

"He's done this _before_?"

"Yeah. He's been trying it every few days for the last month!"

"And you still let him out of the cage?!"

"Hey, Kiwi can't stay cooped up _all_ the time!"

"Odd, when we get back, I'm going to hurt you. Badly. Like, worse-than-that-leg badly."

"I don't like it when you get all serious, James. You sound like you're really gonna do me some harm!"

"That's the general idea, Odd. Speaking of your leg, _how on Earth_ are you keeping up with me on those crutches? Are you a freakin' gymnast or something?!"

"Sort of, but it's mostly that you're just a _really_ slow runner. Hence Mr. Black back there…"

"Hey, you two! You stop right there and tell me what you're doing with that dog!" Their professor was just about 30 feet behind them, running furiously to try to catch up. _Lucky for us he's a marathon runner, not a sprinter! _Odd and James just kept moving, surely enough following Kiwi across the highway toward the old Odessa golf course, just northeast of the athletic facility. They barely let their pace drop as they crossed the 3-foot-tall concrete median, a brief lull in traffic on the other side promising a quick getaway.

Odd tossed James his crutches and slipped his left leg over the barrier, then pushed off with his hands on the concrete and flipped, using his good leg as a fulcrum to twist his landing into a sideways roll on the pavement before springing back to his feet and taking his crutches back from James. _All that with a broken leg… Does nothing slow him down? _James' jump was somewhat less spectacular, straight up onto the block of concrete and straight back to the pavement, but he did manage to keep up with his friend and cross the street just before the next wave of traffic hit. Professor Black wasn't quite able to catch them, stopped cold by a convoy of tractor-trailers headed for Dallas. His frustration was made evident when he started shouting after his escaped quarry.

Pierce, Della-Robbia, I'll be waiting for you when you get back! There'll be no tolerance for any kind of a pet in the dorms, and I _will_ find out what you're doing with that dog! Do you hear me?!" The boys simply ignored him and took advantage of their head start, slowing their pace to ease Odd's frantic shuffling. They broke off from Kiwi's long, circuitous route to head straight for the spot Odd expected the dog to end up at. It was close to the edge of the golf course's property, in the tree-packed rough on the border of a back-9 hole, but sat just far enough inside the artificially-planted treeline to obscure the view of the site from the road. They arrived quickly and hunkered down, waiting for Odd's troublemaking pet.

James asked between gasps for breath, "So, why do you think Kiwi comes here when he goes nuts like that?" Odd simply pointed up, equally worn-out, showing James a bunch of squirrels that he'd found in the tree directly above them.

"He likes to think he can catch one. That or he's getting territorial when one of them gets onto the campus… Kiwi may not be too bright, but he's got a great sense of smell!" Odd dropped his bag and looked around. The thick trees above made what little midday sunlight that did get through to the ground here take on a mottled, camouflage-like pattern reminiscent of his roommate's ever-present hat.

Those shadows on the ground made the wait for Kiwi a little uncomfortable for Odd. He could vividly remember an incident (in a very similar place) when his failure to notice a shadow exactly like those had resulted in two of his friends getting shot, another very nearly kidnapped, and Odd himself being trapped in the bottom of a rapidly-filling cistern. The memory wasn't pleasant. He'd been far more cautious about things since then, although his natural curiosity and carefree nature managed to get him in serious trouble anyway from time to time. Looking around, he began to see the shadows move, so he knew he was thinking too hard on the subject.

"Hey, Odd," Odd gave a quick start as James spoke up. _Definitely thinking too much… _"I've been meaning to ask you something. After the vulture attack, you said something about 'it's not over'. What did you mean?" Odd's slow response sounded nervous.

"Well, it's…" he blushed and looked away from James for a second. "Ah… it didn't seem like…" He was suddenly cut off from his incoherent (and obviously not very convincing) babble by guttural sounds of struggle behind him! Odd spun around to see his roommate fighting with something that looked like a matte-black shadow gone mad. He knew from experience that it was something far worse. _A spectre. _The translucent entity crawled up and over James, consuming him head to toe, then faded away as James fell to his knees. He stood again and faced Odd, flickering for a moment like a TV losing its signal.

"OK, now let's not get hasty about this…" This spectre was a parasitic being, a foul minion of an old enemy now in complete control of his friend, and it was definitely not looking very friendly! Odd shouted and turned to run. No dice. 'James' leapt in an impossibly quick manner and cut off Odd's only escape. Odd deftly dropped his crutches and dropped under the arc of his friend's lightning-fast left fist, sweeping James off his feet with his good leg. It was a futile gesture, however, as James jumped back to his feet and sent a powerful bolt of electricity flying from his outstretched hand, electrocuting and throwing Odd backward into a tree with enough force to put him out cold. He gave a weak cry as he settled to the ground and slipped out of consciousness.

***

Odd awoke to the feeling of moisture on his face. He kicked violently, his hands and feet moving to get him out of the rising water… _and meeting grass?_ He jumped backward with a start as he opened his eyes. He wasn't back in the Hermitage cistern, he realized, just on the ground near the tree where he'd passed out with Kiwi all over him, barking like mad and licking his master's face with his long, wet tongue. He tried to think of how he got there… _Alright, I passed out after hitting the tree… no, getting thrown into the tree…_ _James!_

"Alright, boy, where'd he go?" He had no idea how long he'd been out, or which way the 'spectre' creature that had been manipulating James had run after taking him down. Odd looked around desperately for anything that could lead him to his friend. There were tracks, but they were lost on thinner grass after a few yards. There was a bit of James' favorite yellow t-shirt, torn and hanging on a nearby branch. Unfortunately, none of it was very helpful.

"Oh, man. XANA had to find me _now?_" He looked down at his feet and was stunned. "Well, what do you know? I almost didn't think it was possible… he forgot his hat!" On the ground where his roommate had landed when Odd kicked his feet out, he did indeed see the mottled green pattern of James' favorite hat. James never went outside without the camo cap, and he'd probably be furious to hear that the spectre had dropped it! While Odd tried to recover and wondered what to do next, Kiwi took action. He walked up to the Air Force-issue cap, sniffed it once, and ran off toward the fairway of the golf course.

"Hey! Kiwi, wait up!" Odd stood up, wincing painfully as his body rang out with a cacophony of new injuries from the mighty blow to the tree. He limped over to his fallen crutches and backpack, picked the hat up and followed the dog's shrill bark, hoping that Kiwi's usually fickle nose worked better than his only good leg did at the moment.

***

Not too far away, the spectre-thing was dragging his spellbound captive James Pierce down a tunnel into a chamber beneath the very ground of the Odessa golf course! Had he been conscious, he may have even enjoyed the experience, were the former nuclear bunker not so creepy in décor. In the first room he entered, some 30 feet underground at the floor level, the ladder down from a reinforced and camouflaged hatch opened directly onto a computer lab.

The room was completely dominated by computing equipment, starting with the highly visible centerpiece: a large, disk-shaped device that glowed with a three-dimensional floating image of a spherical object with four contorted arms rotating around it. Around that holographic display were a hi-res three-monitor interface and a command chair that could rotate around the projector, affording the user a 360-degree view of the generated image. In an adjoining room that had been recently dug from the surrounding earth, there was nothing but a massive nitrogen-cooled computer core, clearly capable of a vast amount of power. The heavy build of the device suggested its dangerous contents, namely the nuclear power generator that had been recently taken apart and directly integrated into the refurbished computer's circuitry. Both air-conditioned and fluorescent-lit rooms were layered in cold, hard concrete on the walls, floors, and ceiling, and the sheet-metal paneling of the computer devices was painted in a sort of strangely organic black, giving the entire room a truly scary feel.

The spectre sat James' body down in the command chair of the supercomputer and began typing, his fingers moving far more rapidly than any normal human would find possible. Something stirred in the chamber and he spun around in the seat, scanning the room for an intruder. There appeared to be nothing there, so he finished typing his commands in and moved swiftly back to the ladder. He quickly climbed down the heavy, round steel rungs set into the wall's concrete and dropped into a similarly bland room just below the main one. This second level contained nothing but two floor-to-ceiling metallic cylinders painted the same unsettling black shade as the computer above, each hooked into a rat's nest of cables and wires running into the roof. One of the two cylinders opened up, a long vertical slice of the tube splitting into two sliding doors to reveal a brightly lit golden interior. The ghost quickly walked James into the tube as the doors sealed shut again with a rush of pneumatic pressure. The device began to hum loudly in the vacant room, then reopened to reveal nothing but flash-frozen compressed air.

In that single moment, James Pierce's life was forever changed.

***

"Alright, Kiwi, good job, boy, but go home now! That's right, you did good. Who's my smart little diggitty-dog?" Kiwi ran off as Odd set him down after scratching and petting him for the past five minutes to keep him quiet. Odd had been worried that Kiwi's scratching at the sodded-over hatch he'd found might have given him away a moment ago, but there hadn't been an explosion of electromagnetic energy to blast the cover off the tunnel below, so he assumed he'd avoided discovery. After lifting the concealed (and very heavy) hatch up, Odd carefully climbed down the ladder and slipped into the lab below.

"Well, I guess this is what XANA's been up to lately. Gotta hand it to him, he knows how to cause a problem!" He looked around the room, marveling at the familiar (to him, at least) styling of the computer lab. "You'd think he'd try to be more original!" An insistent beeping from the monitor on the opposite side of the room drew his attention. He dropped his bag next to the holoprojector and pulled up a window on the computer's interface screen. His face fell as he looked at the screen in front of him.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Jeremie's going to have a heart attack…" There was a small symbol on the screen, a text tag indicating a moving point on a digital grid surface. It simply read _James P_. That, however, wasn't what frightened Odd. Directly in front of his good friend, and closing fast, was a second tag… this one identifying the location of a large and hostile creature he _knew_ James couldn't withstand.

"Oh, boy… come on, Odd! You've done this before…" Odd quickly attempted to recall computer codes his old friend Jeremie had taught him. With any luck, they would still be good!

***

James was having about as much fun as Odd was at that very moment… and he was unconscious. When at last he groggily stirred, he had no idea where he was, what he was doing there, what had just happened, or, as he would put it later, _why it had to happen on a Saturday…_ He staggered to his feet and tried to get his bearings. He stumbled over to the nearest solid object and propped himself up long enough to collect his thoughts.

"Ugh, what happened? Odd, are you here? Anybody? Hello? What the…" Looking around, he began to comprehend that he was inside of a small room, completely square in shape and built of rock-solid, impossibly smooth matte-blue surfaces. What he didn't know was how he'd gotten here… James was continuing to scan his surroundings for exits which didn't seem to exist when he heard a kind of loud, rasping sound behind him. He turned around… and nearly screamed! He'd always been a little bit claustrophobic, but that wasn't the reason for this sudden burst of terror. The monstrous _thing_ locked in the room with him was!

It resembled a massive, flying jellyfish, although he could plainly tell that it wasn't as fragile as any normal scyphozoan. Its bulbous head was transparent, revealing a simple brain, and its body was made up of an ornately colored and organically curved cone that hovered several feet off the ground. A pastel-green crest ran from the base of the burgundy cone up the front of the round cranium, the flourish centered on a black triple roundel with 4 tabs coming out from the outermost ring, 3 on the bottom and one, much longer than the others, out the top. The main feature of this _monster_ that had James concerned, though, was the tentacles. There were an _incalculable_ number of them, and the freakish creature could plainly move them quite quickly and deliberately. He wondered if they contained the same neurotoxins that made their much smaller (and probably less intelligent) cousins so lethal.

The jellyfish, however, had none of these things going through its transparent head as it reached out and grabbed James with two of those tentacles. The teenager shouted and feebly tried to escape, but was cut off by the sheer blinding speed of the attack. There was no chance. The tentacles wrapped around him, seeming to lift him up without any physical contact. _My legs are numb, that's gotta be it. This thing's making a meal out of me!_ James tried to yell for help, but went silent as the jellyfish brought three more tentacles to his head and completely immobilized him.

James went limp, his head feeling like it was being pumped full of air. It was an intense, sharp pain that just wouldn't stop, but it became strangely numb as James Pierce slipped away from his conscious mind. Swimming in his own thoughts, James became aware of another consciousness floating in his head. It was powerful, and becoming more so with each passing moment. He could tell that it was trying to push him aside, like some kind of a foul _parasite_, and quickly began struggling to retain control. The other entity, 'visible' in James' mental state only as a vague black fog _seething_ with aggression and domineering will, simply shoved back harder. Its strength was incredible, the force of the attack painfully subduing James without apparent effort! _Argh! What is this thing?! _James felt powerless in the face of this enormous strength. Just as the other entity was prepared to break his resistance entirely, leaving James to be trapped in his own subconscious, James heard a short, muffled voice from outside of his embattled mind.

"Hey there, Slimey! Remember me? Now, you let go of my buddy!" He felt the other being in his mind vanish in a final flash of pain as James was shoved back into his body and dropped to the ground, too weak to move. His ears were ringing, his limbs on fire, and his head was throbbing with an _excruciating_ pain. James lay like this for several long minutes, each feeling like an eternity. He tried to stand, but pain racked his muscles as he tried to move them. He simply yelled as he fell back to the floor, out cold again.

***

"Hey, James? Yoo-hoo, Jaa-aames!" _Go away, Odd. It's a Saturday, for crying out loud… _"Hey, Kiwi, get away from that! Flyboy's airplane is very important to him!"

"Oh, crap… Kiwi, what are you doing?" James staggered out of bed… and rolled onto more rock-hard bed? He opened his eyes, his groggy senses meeting a blinding wall of blue as he tried to see what Kiwi had gone and done.

"Take it easy for a minute, Flyboy. You've been having a really rough day!" Odd's high-pitched voice was soon accompanied by a shadowy purple silhouette above James' head. His eyes stopped swimming after a moment, slowly sharpening the image to that of his friend hovering over him. As he continued to stare gratefully at the familiar face, he realized there was something weird about his roommate… and that was saying something!

"Hey, Odd," James said as he tried to shift to a more comfortable position, "I'm probably not seeing right at the moment, but _are_ you actually dressed like a giant purple cat?" It was true! Odd Della-Robbia was clad from his neck to the _tail_ flicking behind him to his clawed toes in a purple bodysuit, accented by orange striping in several places, as well as a highly stylized image of Kiwi on the torso. His hands also had small claws on all four fingertips, and a pair of feline ears poked out from his usual spiked hairdo.

"You know, James, I am, but I really have no idea why. You'd think it would've been a giant purple dog, right?" The two friends embraced, enjoying the moment of poorly timed and cheesy humor in a decidedly bad day. "Anyway, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be?" James was confused for a moment… then his vision cleared. He gave a short shout as he came face-to-face with the blue room from his nightmare… sans jellyfish. "At least, I think I'm alright. I remember the attack in the park… then, I woke up locked in this tiny blue room with an enormous floating jellyfish. It grabbed me, I think I passed out again, and then the next thing I know you're standing over me in a spandex cat suit! Please tell me that makes sense."

"Probably more sense than you think. When I got here, you were at that 'jellyfish's private banquet as the main course. I pulled you out of its tentacles and chased it off a few minutes ago." James clearly looked horrified. "Yes, it all really did happen. You'll get used to this, trust me!" _Right. This from the kid dressed like a cat._

"Somehow, I doubt that. Okay, I think I'm good to move. Slowly, at least. Now, where are we?" He looked around and saw a large room, the same blue tone as the small one, made up completely of square corners and flat surfaces. It looked like a little kid's Lego city, towers stretching skyward from floors descending into caverns and dividing into tunnels and bridges that produced an incredible landscape. The complete lack of curvature gave the environment a look that would have been almost beautiful, except that it seemed to be the domain of that _jellyfish-thing_. That made it a place to escape from with all due haste!

"Follow me, Flyboy. I'll see if I can get us out of here, then we can go meet someone who can answer that question for you."

***

"Come on Odd, level with me. I'm doing my best not to panic here, pal, but what's going on?"

Odd had led his friend out onto a simple, square-angled rectangular platform suspended over what appeared to be the inside of a sphere made up of rapidly shifting numbers and transparent datascreens. The ledge was itself attached to another orb that appeared to be solid gray, and was suspended in the center of the larger one. It was an awe-inspiring sight, a truly jaw-dropping marvel for anyone who wasn't aware of its danger. James, however, was just trying to keep his fear of heights in check.

"Well, it's kind of a long story, but we're inside of a virtual reality called Lyoko, run by a demonic AI called XANA. You'll have to talk with Jeremie or Aelita when we get out of here if you want a full explanation."

"Alright, I guess I've got no alternatives, so I'll go along with this for now. Right. We're inside of a virtual universe." Irritation and sarcasm dripped from his every word. "So, your old friends are in on this, too? Okay… GREAT! I've stumbled onto some kind of Matrix fan club gone wrong… Y'know, you could have mentioned being insane _before_ now!"

"It was a secret! We haven't had to come here in 3 years, so I didn't expect for you to find out about it. Also, we don't have anything to do with the Matrix; this is just our night job."

"'Night job'?"

"Yeah, it's what we do in our down time. Ah, keep an eye open for any wrinkles in the dome, will ya?"

"Wrinkles? What the heck do you mean, 'wrinkles'?"

Odd ignored the question and accessed a floating holographic computer screen at the end of the short platform. A second or two later, he responded to James' query with one of his own.

"Where was Hannibal from?"

James turned to his roommate with an incredulous look on his face. "Okay, of all the things we could be talking about right now, why on Earth… or, wherever you say this is… do you want to know about Hannibal?!"

"I need a password to get us out of here, and I heard Jeremie mention Hannibal once when he was talking about it. Where was Hannibal from?"

"Carthage. It was a powerful trading city located on the northern coast of modern-day Tunisia…" Odd zoned out as James continued to list off facts about Hannibal and Carthage. He recalled to his mind instructions for using the interface and brought up a screen asking for a command code. While he was getting busy, James switched into a monologue about Hannibal's battle tactics. Seemed like this Hannibal was a really clever guy! _But man, is it really considered important that the guy got stung by a bug in his _eyeball_?_ Odd tried CARTHAGE in the command-prompt box, but it came back incorrect. He slammed his head into the display, frustrated.

"… It was a brilliant ambush, if not exactly fair for the Romans. Anyway, the sad part of it all was that, for all his amazing strategy, Hannibal was simply kept from destroying Rome until he had to turn back home, and eventually Carthage was simply overrun by a Roman General, Scipio Africanus. Talk about winning the battle and losing the war!" James turned and stared at the outer dome's constantly changing wall. He squinted, trying to make certain that he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. "Hey, you mentioned 'wrinkles' in the dome a minute ago, right? Well, there are three over there now!"

"Oh, that's just what we needed: Mantas!" Odd was busy typing a familiar word from James' long-winded description of the Second Punic War into the holographic screen: SCIPIO. The code was correct! …But still no good. He needed a key now to validate the code, and he only knew one person (not present, of course) who would have one. He turned back to James. His roommate was looking _very_ confused.

"What's a Manta ray doing here? Not like I've looked or anything, but I seriously doubt there's any water around here!"

"There's not, but these Mantas are flying fish, anyway. Also, they're not too friendly, so do you have a weapon on you?"

"What do you mean, _a weapon_?! I didn't exactly have the time, Odd, to grab a bow while I was being dragged off to your 'computer world'!" Odd simply gestured at James with an outstretched paw… err, hand.

"Have you checked what you're wearing?" James actually hadn't taken the time to look himself over since the run-in with the jellyfish, and was surprised to see that he wasn't dressed in the simple t-shirt and jeans he'd been wearing in the woods on the golf course.

"Well, whatever this 'XANA' thing of yours is, it has great taste!" He was dressed in a loose pastel-green tunic and deeper-tone undershirt, both made of a heavy, course fabric that could plainly take a beating. The shirt met a pair of identical pants under the mesh belt at his waistline, and two burgundy-red, knee-height leather boots covered his legs. It was similar to the garb of a Jedi Knight, and James (a longtime Star Wars fan) couldn't have been happier! He brought his left hand (his dominant) back along the utility belt at his waist and, sure enough, found a simple metallic cylinder roughly 10 inches long clipped to the belt on his left hip. Drawing the lightsaber in a close mimic of Ewan McGregor, (practiced for years) he thumbed the red power switch and was ecstatic to see a 3-foot long forest-green beam leap from the hilt, humming dangerously as it hissed through the air.

"How exactly is this even possible?"

"Ask Jeremie… later!"

"Any particular reason you're so touchy?"

"Well, we've kinda got company, and I can't get this code working without Aelita's help!" He pointed at the wall as each of the three deformations in the digital wall burst to reveal a navy-blue-and-white flying ray. They moved fast toward the outcropping, but in a strangely graceful manner that looked a lot like they were swimming in water. Odd knew the smooth, almost mesmerizing motion belied their aggression and lethal ferocity.

"So we're trapped here unless your cousin shows up. Wonderful. Hey, are those things dangerous?" James looked nervous, bringing the lightsaber up into a guard position across his torso. He looked very much like an amateur.

"Well, I doubt Steve Irwin would want to stick around. Just see if you can avoid getting hit while I think of something…"

"Right, stay out of the way of the flying fish while Catman thinks of a plan. No problem! They're moving at what, like 4 miles per hour?"

"No, they shoot la… Ahhh, shield!" Odd shouted and brought his arms across his torso, generating a hemisphere of purple energy in front of him as one of the three creatures closed on the platform, sending a trio of brilliant red laser bolts into the solid-light wall. It dove away below the platform.

James was dumbfounded for a second, but remembered where he was. He tried to seem unimpressed. "Ah, virtual superpowers. I get it! Cool trick, I could use that the next time that jellyfish shows up… How's it work?"

"Well, everybody has their own powers around here. I've got that shield and a few other tricks, but you'll just have to figure out what you've got to work with!"

"Oh, well this'll be a _ton of fun_, then, won't it!? Ay, yi, yi…" James jerked out of the way of an incoming shot and clumsily shifted the saber to his right hand, slashing at the passing bolt and missing by a mile. "Well, I guess I haven't suddenly developed catlike reflexes! One down…" The other two Mantas began circling above the platform, firing as they got good angles on the deck. Odd ducked, bobbed and weaved, handily dodging the withering oppressive fire. James noticed something about his friend.

"Hey, what happened to your broken leg?"

"You can't have broken bones inside a computer! I'm not even sure if I actually _have_ bones right now!"

"Good to know!" James was able to hold his own for a minute, clumsily twisting out of the way of the crimson fire that swirled past him, but he was hit by the first Manta when it popped back up behind him. His back went numb for a moment, then coursed with electrical pain as he fell to his knees.

"Agh! Those things pack a punch! Any bright ideas, Odd?"

"For now, Flyboy, this _is_ the plan! Laser arrows!" Odd tracked one of the circling Mantas with his left hand, firing a short burst of solid-light projectiles from his wrist. The third arrow lanced into the central ring of the round symbol etched on the ray's back, sending it onto a spiral before it exploded far below.

"Awesome!" James was staring at Odd with stunned amazement… and then a moment of realization. "So that's where you got the idea for your crossbow! 'Kind of a reminder of old times', right?" The bitter sarcasm dripping from James' lips was entirely lost on Odd.

"Yeah, I did enjoy saving the world on a regular basis. I don't know, you do this for two years, it sort of grows on ya!"

James turned on Odd with fire in his eyes. "_Two years_?! _Saving the world?!"_

"Actually, it was a little bit closer to three years…" Odd wasn't doing himself any favors.

"And you didn't bother to warn me about it?!"

"Again, it was a secret!" Odd ducked another flurry of laser bolts. "We thought we killed XANA, so I didn't exactly expect him to come looking for me!" James shot Odd another fiendish scowl.

"I'm not even gonna ask what exactly this 'XANA' is. Anyway, _since_ you decided not to tell me about this, I've been possessed, kidnapped, partially eaten by a jellyfish, trapped in a computer game, shot with directed-energy weapons, and knocked unconscious _twice_ today! Thanks, dude!"

"Hey, do you find it necessary to get all serious and angry _every_ time something goes wrong? It really kills my mood…"

"It's how I deal with stressful situations. That, and dry, sarcastic wit. I think getting shot at by flying monsters while trapped in a digital reality I know nothing about qualifies as _stressful_!"

"Well, if that's your idea of stress, then you're about to have a heart attack. Watch it!" James spun around and thought he felt his heart skip a beat as _12 _of the aggressive flying creatures flew across the terminator of the spherical core, firing as they came. Panicking, James brought his arms up to protect his face from the painful impact he felt sure was coming. He was shocked to see one of the Mantas jerk violently upward as he did so, throwing off its aim and sending the laser bolt into the void above their heads. Odd immediately turned to his friend, surprised.

"Woah! Where'd that come from?" He'd seen Yumi do things like that all the time, but her telekinetic abilities had always seemed difficult for her to use. That was an _accident_!

"I guess it comes with the costume. Heh, heh, this could be more fun than I thought!" Gathering his new-found power, James leaped skyward and swung the lightsaber in a wild arc, cleaving through a Manta as his vault peaked 30 feet up. The creature glowed brilliantly through the trail left by the glowing blade, then detonated in a violent burst of digital particles. His momentary euphoria of victory, however, gave way to trouble on landing. James came down slightly off-angle and clumsily stumbled across the platform, nearly knocking Odd over in the process.

"Woah… Hey, James, be careful! If we fall off of this thing, those Mantas will be the least of our problems!"

"I got excited, sorry. That's an _incredible_ feeling of energy, do you feel like that _all_ the time?" He picked himself up on the translucent screen hovering at the end of the deck and stood, but fell down again as he was suddenly assailed by a splitting headache. His eyes blurred for a moment, but returned to their usual clarity (without glasses, he realized) almost immediately. It wore off completely after a few excruciating seconds, leaving James to double over in pain again as two of the Mantas' laser bolts sizzled into his midsection. Odd dropped to the same kneeling position that he had on the road under James' airplane, aimed, and fired to destroy the two monsters that had shot James, but took another hit to his own back.

"Alright, Odd, we're getting killed out here. Is there any other way to get out?" Six of the nine remaining Mantas were coming in from the right of the rectangular platform, intent on blasting both boys to kingdom come.

"No, not really." It was too late to run for it now. Odd braced himself for the inevitable impact of the Mantas' energy weapons. When it didn't come, he looked again. To his surprise, the monsters banked sharply away from their prey and simply flew off, screeching like foul eagles forced to abandon a hunt. He continued to track them with his left arm as the rest of the pack flew away as well.

"What's going on?" Odd looked around for an explanation and saw the interface screen blinking and beeping with the confirmation key of the code he'd typed in a minute ago.

"Yeah! We're out of here, just stay close!" He couldn't have been more relieved to see a white sphere with the black roundel that James was starting to dislike stretched across its face fly up, seemingly from nowhere, and encapsulate himself and his bewildered roommate. It lifted off from the ledge with the two boys inside and sped them away from the sphere, toward freedom.

***

The transporter orb soared with blistering speed just inches from the surface of a forest landscape, rocketing along to a remote peninsula on the border of the woods. It settled to the ground at its destination and began a slow rotation, depositing its two passengers on the ground as one half of the sphere vanished for a moment, then turned and sped back off to the void it had come from.

"Oh, that thing always makes me sick!" Odd looked truly ill, and James was sure he looked just plain old confused.

"Alright, where are we now? Anything's better than that matte-blue nightmare, but this is just getting weird!" He was looking around at the new environment and saw a nearly-flat green floor that was textured to resemble grass. It seemed to go on forever, open in large, seemingly random patches to reveal a shifting sea of digital particles below. Reaching up from invisible roots hovering just above the ocean of seemingly liquid data below, a large number of branchless, brown tree trunks stretched infinitely skyward, most piercing the green ribbons of the landscape, but a few also free-standing. As a whole, it looked like the result of a nuclear blast in Yellowstone, a creepy but strangely beautiful desolation in the heart of a forest. "I mean, really, would it be too much to ask just to go home?"

"Not just yet, Flyboy." Odd dusted himself off, then proceeded to explain. "Lyoko has four sectors like this one all around the core, Sector 5, where we just came from. This is the Forest Sector. Each one's different, and they all have towers like that one over there," Odd pointed toward a tall, white, cylindrical object on the horizon, glowing white at its peak, "that can be activated to affect the real world."

"Like, how do you mean 'affect' the real world?"

"Anything electrical. Power lines, computers, and spectres like the one that grabbed you can all be messed with or generated by an activated tower."

"OK, I get it. So, there's an active tower somewhere around here that was used to snatch me." James now had a very personal stake in this. "Is there any way to deactivate them?"

"Yeah, but I'll need to call my friends from France back in, my… uh, cousin's the only one who can do that. For now, I think we ought to just find the tower so we can tell the others where to go when we come back."

"If that's the only way you're going to let me go home, then all right. Which way are we going?" Odd started to look around, but then gave James a nervous chuckle and put a comically sarcastic look on his face.

"First, tell me something. Do you like seafood?"

"It's not my favorite, but I do like fish from time to time. Why?"

"Because I'm looking at four large orders of Krabbe!" He thrust his thumb back over his shoulder, his bad joke triggering an irritated groan from James as he saw more approaching monsters. Admittedly, they did appear very similar to oversized crabs! These new creatures looked like orange saucers, the same tabbed roundel as the Mantas emblazoned across the top of the disk, with three long, jointed legs that moved in mechanical unison to get the Krabbes across the flat ground at high speeds. Three large lenses on the front of the disk looked very much like large electronic eyes, unblinking and cold.

"Didn't we just leave this party?"

"Ah, don't worry." Odd had a new swagger in his step and his speech sounded cocky. "These things aren't _nearly_ as tough as the Mantas. Just get close and aim for the thing on the top that looks like an eye!" He didn't have to tell James twice. Fully accessing the well of power he'd touched on in Sector 5, James gathered energy beneath him (he decided to call this powerful energy the Force, just to keep the Jedi theme going) and leapt, pushing against the ground with the stored energy at the same moment. James barrel-rolled through the air, drawing on his extensive knowledge of dogfighting tactics to avoid the fire he drew from the four enormous crabs. It wasn't exactly a graceful performance, but it worked.

Landing some ten feet in front of his opponents, James quickly realized he might have been a little overconfident in charging them alone. Thinking on his feet, he drew on the Force as one of the monsters audibly charged a shot. The three lenses on the forward part of the monster's disk sent red beams of energy to a point just in front of its body to form an upside-down image of the hated roundel in red light. Acting on pure instinct, James brought the lightsaber up from his belt and ignited it, his left hand swinging in a slow arc as the Krabbe unleashed a powerful red bolt akin to the Mantas' toward him. A wave of euphoria washed over James Pierce as the beam bounced from the radiating green surface of his weapon's blade, reflecting away to be absorbed into a nearby tree. _So, I may not be fast enough to block that, but I can use the Force to augment my reflexes!_

"Yeah!" He poured on the coal, using all the raw power he could draw on to jump in a disconcertingly quick fashion, flying clear of the Krabbes' limited aiming arcs and landing on top of one of the moving disks. He dug his lightsaber into the center of the oddly easy-to-dislike symbol, pulling it out as the crustacean stumbled and buckled beneath him. It exploded, throwing James to the ground nearby. He started to get up, but then fell back as the headache he'd experienced in the core zone returned, far worse than before. He was momentarily blind and found it impossible to move as the pain paralyzed his limbs and stopped his breath. He relaxed, letting the debilitating hurt run its course. _Just when things were getting good, too…_

"Laser arrows!" Odd was doing slightly better… running in the _canopy_ of the forest, he used the claws on his hands and feet to jump between trees and fired from mid-air! Two of the Krabbes were running beneath him, firing up at their quarry in a vain effort to knock the agile teen out of the sky. He fired again and hit the two round monsters, then dropped to the ground and started running at an impossibly low angle to the ground toward the final Krabbe. For a moment, he seemed even more catlike than he had already, sprinting on all fours and dodging out of the way of the monster's increasingly accurate fire.

James leaped back up, the headache suddenly gone and the Force guiding his lightsaber to deflect the red beams directed at him. This was too easy! He went to jump and strike at the last monster, but found himself stuck in the pattern of defensive blocks and dodges. He tried to yell at Odd for help, but found that he couldn't talk. James began to panic as he lost all control of himself. Then came the moment when the Krabbe stopped shooting at him. That was when he knew something was very wrong.

"James? Uh, what're you doing?" Odd was visibly worried as he turned around, but James was powerless to explain what was going on. "Come on, Flyboy, snap out of it! Are you _insane_?!" James began wondering whether this miserable experience was _ever_ going to end…

***

Odd was outright scared now. His friend was turning on him, and the last remaining Krabbe had started aiming at Odd. Worse, it was now joined by two Tarantulas, XANA's very strongest creatures. The large, white, and organic-looking Tarantulas were very much like their namesakes, albeit longer in body, with four long legs tipped with powerful laser cannons attached to their streamlined arachnoid torsos. Their six beady, red eyes looked across the way at Odd, all of them saying the same thing: _You're toast. _Add all that to his low health status, and Odd was in bad shape. He was slowly being backed up to the edge of the sector as James drew closer.

As Odd's roommate walked forward, he gave off a pulse of brilliant white light and his virtual appearance shifted to match his intentions. Where there had been a green-robed Jedi Knight, there was now a Sith Lord, clad from head to toe in a form-fitting black bodysuit. James Pierce looked altogether too similar to Odd's old friend William Dunbar, who had experienced a similar problem in the virtual arena.

"Can't we talk about this?" James responded with a slashing blow from his lit lightsaber, the suitably blood-red blade barely stopped by Odd's indigo shield. His vicious gaze pulsed with XANA's Eye (the tabbed roundel Odd had grown to despise years ago) where his greenish-blue pupils used to be. "I guess not, huh?" The only response to this was a demonic-sounding chuckle and a bemused smile as James drew back, allowing his cohorts a clear shot. The Tarantulas sat back on their hind legs, readied their forelimbs for firing, and Odd braced himself for battle.

"Fire!" XANA-James gave the order, and the two Tarantulas opened up. Each one began ripple-firing their two cannons, their rate of fire far exceeding that of the lone Krabbe taking potshots behind the cover they offered. Odd leaped, twisted, dodged, and danced around the laser bolts, going through an elaborate ballet he knew he wouldn't be able to maintain for long.

"All right, you asked for it! Laser arrows!" Odd sent shot after shot in the creatures' direction, but hit nothing. _I need time to aim…_ He ducked behind a large boulder, panting loudly as he tried to figure out a way to distract the firing squad waiting for him. He heard the leathery growls of the Tarantulas and the mechanical sounds of the Krabbe approaching, and he knew there wasn't much time to think of a plan.

"OK, settle down, Odd." He looked around for a way to gain the upper hand, to somehow surprise the advancing Tarantulas. There was nothing, just a couple of trees nearby, the rock, a hole in the forest floor… _Oh, this is interesting! Yes, I think that'll work…_

***

James was purely terrified, but starting to get used to the weird happenings of the day. _What's going on now? Why can't I move, but I'm still attacking Odd?_ He could feel himself moving closer to the rock where Odd had taken cover, and he saw the two white monsters that had shown up moving along his flanks. _I wonder how many different kinds of these things there are! Regardless, if they can do that rapid-fire thing anytime, I sure hope Odd's not behind that rock when we get there… _As James was thinking this, he felt a massive surge of energy as his body flipped over the rock, carving a shoulder-height wedge out of it with the lightsaber. Odd, to his great relief, was nowhere to be found! _Way to go, Odd! Now, just pop back up and get me out of here. _Whatever was controlling his body seemed to be frustrated, leaping back over the large stone to search for any sign of Odd Della-Robbia. When it did, it was shocked to see the Krabbe and one of the two larger monsters detonate as an unusually familiar purple cat caught them off guard. Odd pressed his ambush, sending half a dozen of his deadly-accurate darts at James! The manipulating entity was slow to respond, taking two in the chest before dropping to the ground. At that point, James felt a sickening tearing sensation in his legs, then looked down to see his entire body slowly vanishing in a shower of digital pixels. _Odd, did you really have to shoot me?! I'm really going to hope I'm not dead. Now _that_ would really suck!_ As an afterthought, he mused, _I guess it would be the perfect end to the day I have going, though..._ As he finished disintegrating, James Pierce felt a short moment of nothingness, then a brief tingle and an impact.

"Oh… hey, I'm back!" James flexed his sore muscles a little bit in order to reassure himself of that. "Odd, when you show up, I'm gonna…" Mid-sentence, he fell unconscious in a sudden wave of tiredness.

* * *

**What? Like you've never just dropped asleep... okay, maybe you haven't, but have you ever had this kind of a day? I know I haven't. So the cat's out of the bag now, and James is still confused about what exactly the 'cat' is. I suppose you could warn him... if only you spoke Hovitos!**


	6. A Secret Shared

**Hello, again. Welcome to Chapter 5, the blatant exposition portion of my mad plot. This chapter will introduce the remaining members of the Lyoko Warriors (Again, not mine. They all belong to Moonscoop.) and establish my version of the Hopper backstory in the form of Jeremie's briefing for the 'new kid', James. It'll be long and has absolutely no action in it at all, but I think you'll find it very interesting. Enjoy, and please review!  
Ryan Black out.**

* * *

Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
20:00:03  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-5  
"A Secret Shared"

For obvious reasons, I was freaking out! Well, that is, I would have been if I was conscious… but… ah, you know what I mean! Anyway, I was prepared for it all to be a really weird dream and wake up for breakfast Sunday morning. Boy, was I in for a shock…

2 Hours later…

"… and that's when the Tarantula shot me. So, what's the verdict, Jeremie?"

"If that's all that happened, I think it's safe to say that he's not under XANA's control. The scan came back negative for any kind of an active link to the supercomputer, but it did turn up a strange DNA abnormality. Could be a sleeper program, like what happened to William the first time he rematerialized. We probably just need to keep a close eye on him for now."

"Makes sense to me."

"Whatever we do, we need to start doing it. Our new friend's waking up!"

"He is?" The sound of footsteps. A hand shaking James' shoulder.

"James, you awake?! Hello! Anybody home, Flyboy?!" It had to be Odd. No one else could be that annoying at this time of day… _Wait a minute!_ James tapped the floor he was lying on. There wasn't concrete on his bed in the dorm… _Oh, shoot_._ Not again… _he mumbled something, not quite awake enough just yet to speak coherently.

"What?" Odd responded.

"At's hree…" Closer, but not there yet…

"What?" _Odd, you thick-headed numbskull…_

"I said that's three, Odd!" There it was.

"Three? Three what?"

"Three times you've gotten me knocked out today! I mean, if it _is_ still today." James tried to sit up, but didn't have it in him yet.

"No worries, it's still Saturday. You've only been out for about two hours." That voice was unfamiliar… James tried to open his eyes, but got nothing but a mildly painful and watery blur for his trouble.

"Is somebody here with you? I can't really see yet, my head's not feeling so good."

"Oh, these are my friends you've heard so much about! The brown blur over there talking to you is Jeremie, the green blur is Ulrich, the pink blur is Aelita, the black blur is Yumi, and I'm the big purple blur right in front of you!"

"Thanks, Odd, that's very helpful." _Not._ "And how are the good blurs doing today? Better than I am, I hope!"

"Actually, we're fine! Could be warmer, but no complaints." That was a boy's voice, deep and resonating with charm. _Or was that sarcasm? Must be Ulrich_. James slowly sat up and waited for his vision to clear.

"I think you dropped this back in the woods." Odd placed something in James' lap. It felt like a very tough variety of cloth…

"My hat? I actually lost my hat? Wow, after four years… thanks, Odd. Hey, anybody know where my glasses are, too? I'm going to need them once my eyes get back in focus."

"Oh, here! I found them in the scanner after you fainted." This girl's voice was soft and caring in tone, but carried every bit as much authority as Ulrich's. The pink blob hovered closer and deposited the wire frame in his left hand. James slipped them onto the bridge of his nose and already felt more comfortable.

"Thanks… Aelita, right? Am I saying that correctly?"

"Yes, that's right. Aelita Stones. Nice to meet you, James."

"I take it Odd's been telling you all about me."

"Yeah, he has. You sound a lot like Ulrich, to tell you the truth!" That was Yumi. She sounded just like Odd had described: aggressive, but endearingly so, and more light-hearted than her stiff tone let on.

James' vision started to return, and he tried to stand up. Looking around, he saw a semi-square room, built of concrete, with a large, heavy metal door at one end, a hole in the ceiling leading to a ladder at the other, and a large, circular projector of sorts in the middle. It was displaying a sphere at the moment, flanked in the cardinal directions by four arms that appeared to have subsections of their own. His muscles burned, cramped, and ached after lying still for so long, but he managed to stagger up and lean on the nearest wall until his legs stopped quivering.

"All right, I think I'm good now. At least I probably won't keel over again! Thanks for your help, guys, but would someone _please_ tell me what's going on now? It's been a really long, really weird day, and I'm not in the best of moods!"

"Yeah, Einstein, I kinda promised him you'd fill in the blanks." Odd walked over to Jeremie's seat at a computer monitor adjacent to the projector. "Mind giving him the story?" Jeremie looked up from the screen where he had been typing incomprehensible (to James, anyway) computer code.

"Yeah, why not? It's obvious we can't just convince you that this was all a dream anymore, can we?" The renowned genius got up from his chair and strode over to James.

"No, you really can't. Anyway, I think I deserve to know why I've been kidnapped by a bunch of crazy computer nuts!" James spoke with as much venom as he could inject into his voice without being openly hostile. This Belpois kid was probably his only way out of here, so he'd try to play nice for now. Jeremie wasn't much to look at, a gangly figure in khaki slacks and a brown sweater. His round glasses concealed a pair of eyes that seemed far more confident than Jeremie's posture suggested. _He doesn't _look_ insane…_

"You're absolutely right, and I'm sure today's been rough… but first things first! I'm Jeremie Belpois." He shook James' feeble hand with a relatively weak, but determined grip.

"James Pierce, or 'Flyboy' according to Odd. Good to finally meet you, 'Einstein'."

"Clearly, my reputation precedes me! Glad to meet you, James."

"Jeremie, your reputation precedes _me _most of the time, and I'm a 'B' student!" Ulrich walked over from where he'd been sitting up against the holoprojector. "I'm Ulrich. Odd tells me you're good with airplanes…" James followed his terse lead.

"James. He tells me you're the local star athlete," he slyly turned toward Yumi, "and that you two make a lovely couple!"

A rapid "We're not a couple!" was the instant response from the both of them, even if their immediate blushing and refusal to meet each others' eyes told James otherwise. He chuckled.

"Sorry, Yumi, I just couldn't resist! Odd's just told me _so_ much about the two of you…"

"Well, next time you should check your facts!" Yumi was trying to come across angry, but she sounded too hollow to mean it. James let it slide. _I think that went well, given the circumstances. Humor always lightens the mood!_

"Well, if everyone's acquainted, I guess I should probably just start at the beginning and work my way forward." Jeremie closed the window he'd been typing in and turned his chair around. James settled in for a long story. "Well, it all started in 1974, when the United States Air Force initiated a special-access program called 'Project Carthage'. It was based on a system of supercomputers, located all around the world, which were set up in a data network to run a very special program: a multi-agent AI. This AI was meant to be an electronic master spy capable of anything from espionage to censorship to communications jamming in time of war. The project director, the man who developed this entire system, was an Austrian immigrant named Waldo Schaeffer. He had it up and running by 1977, and it worked better than he ever could have hoped!

"Or at least, it was all working flawlessly until 1981, when Schaeffer married his girlfriend, Antea Hopper. He decided to settle down to raise a family, and relinquished control of Project Carthage to the regular military. He took personal command of the Carthage supercomputer site in Boulder, Colorado, and he and Antea had a little girl there in 1982. Things were going just perfectly for the Schaeffer family… until 1984.

"That was when Waldo received, by mistake, a memo addressed to 'the directors of Project Carthage' (meaning the military tribunal that had taken over for him) that detailed uses of the Carthage network he _hadn't_ been told about. Extortion, cover-up, false accusations… the military operators of the Carthage network had access to _all_ communications around the world, and were using that power for their own personal gain. Needless to say, he was furious! _His_ program, _his life's work_, was being turned into a tool for terrorism, greedy profit, and vengeance! He decided then and there that the entire system had to be destroyed to prevent further corruption. He began quietly upgrading his supercomputer station, making it far more powerful than any of the others in the Carthage network.

"By 1986, he was finished and ready to begin his attack. He suggested to Carthage's commanders that reprogramming Carthage's data network as a virtual reality system would be a good way to increase efficiency in analysis and transfer of data from the Carthage AI. It was true, but he had other plans that required a virtual world in order to work properly. The change was made, and then Schaeffer did something he would later regret: he used the virtual reality environment on _his_ supercomputer as a base for the creation of a _smart_ AI."

James looked puzzled. "What do you mean, a 'smart' AI? Isn't that what an AI always is, an 'artificial intelligence'?"

"No, not really. An AI is a program that mimics the human thought process by analyzing set data that is fed to it and generating an appropriate response according to a series of set parameters. A 'smart' AI, or an independent artificial intelligence, is theoretically capable of thinking for itself, coming up with responses to stimuli according to its own personal opinion that's been formed, and changes over time, through personal experience. It's just like a human mind, and independent of an operator's control. By setting this AI up in the virtual reality, Schaeffer gave it a way to live for itself in its own world, to _organically_ grow and learn, which _enabled_ it to think for itself. He gave it these capabilities so that it would be able to strategize and bring down Carthage without relying on Waldo's input… which could have been traced!" James understood.

"He was making sure that the attack couldn't lead to retribution for him and his family. The AI would take the fall, acting like a virus in their system."

"Exactly! And it worked, too. In early 1987, after making sure he had gotten it right, he unleashed his AI, code-named XANA, on the Carthage virtual-reality network."

"The same XANA Odd mentioned in that blue, boxy place?"

"That's Sector 5, and yes, the same XANA. He's become our worst enemy since his… _work_ on Carthage and was responsible for what happened to you today. By 1989, even the American military had had enough of his handiwork. They were losing men and computers left and right to this 'virus', and it was drawing attention from a government that didn't yet know what was _really_ being done with Carthage's funds. The final straw came when XANA succeeded in completely destroying the eavesdropper AI. With that loss, late in '89, Project Carthage was dismantled, and all the supercomputers deactivated. Schaeffer pulled his AI back to Colorado, but hesitated to shut the computer down and kill his finest creation. He left it alive, running amok on its own little world inside the abandoned computer. He took up his cover job as a local history teacher full-time, and devoted the rest of his time to raising his daughter."

James leaned forward, engrossed in the story. "Sounds like a happy ending, even if it does seem a little bit out-there. Judging by my little adventure earlier, though, I'm guessing you're not finished."

Jeremie just adjusted his round glasses. "No, unfortunately I'm not. In fact, it just gets worse from here. Waldo hadn't counted on Carthage's operators not trusting the site commanders to shut down their supercomputers. They wanted to make certain that the sites _were_ shut down, not becoming someone's personal electronic plaything, so they sent out inspectors from a sort of recovery force known as the 'Men in Black'. They exist… at least, we're pretty sure they exist… to keep government secrets secret, and they are _very_ good at their job.

"Noting the upgrades to Schaeffer's computer, they delved deeper into the supercomputer's files and discovered XANA. At first, they hoped they'd rediscovered the eavesdropper AI. This is where XANA first revealed his darker side. After four years either being used as a weapon or left to fend for himself, he'd developed a semi-insane state specifically found in smart AIs. Are you familiar with the theory of rampancy?"

"A self-aware computer program goes nuts, ignores all orders, and does whatever it wants, usually at the expense of the programmer." James was looking truly out of sorts trying to grasp the bleak reality of this hidden world. "It's a common theme in sci-fi stories, just like everything else you've told me! How is any of this possible in the _real world_?!"

Jeremie just shrugged. "Waldo Schaeffer was ahead of his time, what can I say? XANA, in addition to going loopy, had also developed a very strong self-preservation protocol. In order to keep himself from being shut down by the MIB, he implicated his creator in the destructive rampage against Carthage. In exchange, he was granted amnesty from any of _his_ actions and the Colorado supercomputer as a permanent (and completely isolated) home."

"Wow." James giggled, as though there was something humorous about all this. "Paramilitary legal proceedings involving a self-intelligent and slightly insane artificial intelligence. If you _are_ lying to me, kudos! This is the most original material I've ever heard!"

"Uhhh… thanks?" Jeremie seemed a bit confused by the crack, but snapped himself out of it and continued. "Based on XANA's testimony, the Men in Black decided that Schaeffer was a threat that had to be eliminated. Their first attempt to kill him in 1992 failed, however, instead causing the death of his wife, Antea. Grief-stricken, Waldo decided that his first priority from then on would be to keep himself and, more importantly, his daughter safe from further reprisals. I suspect he also went a little bit insane himself coping with the loss, but more on that later.

"He planted evidence at the scene of the attack that suggested he and his daughter had also died, then changed their names and moved all over Europe for a year before settling in about a half-mile from here."

"Woah, wait… where exactly _are_ we right now?"

"Underneath an old car factory a few miles outside of Paris." Yumi answered.

"Paris?! I thought you said I'd been out for just a few hours! How'd you get me here?!"

"I'll get to that… but back to the story. Waldo became a science teacher at Kadic Academy (where we all met) and built an isolated house here that he called the Hermitage. He and his daughter were now safe, off the radar as Franz and Aelita Hopper."

"Aelita? Huh, now there's a coincidence! What are the odds of your cousin having _that_ same name, Odd?"

"Well, actually, she's not really my cousin. This _is _Aelita Hopper!" Odd grinned sheepishly as an increasingly bewildered James turned to a blushing Aelita. Her fiery green eyes and voice exuded authority beyond her years, even if she was rendered somewhat eccentric in appearance by her bright pink bob of hair. Her shy demeanor suggested she was uncomfortable around others, but she wasn't a shrinking violet by any stretch of the imagination. _Makes sense. Anybody who somehow escaped a military manhunt probably wouldn't be too unsure of themselves!_

"I've been going by Stones for the last few years to keep my relation to Franz Hopper a secret. The Men in Black found us again after a while, and I might not be safe if they knew I was still here."

"_We_ came up with that ruse after what happened next." Jeremie continued his story. "Now, Franz Hopper knew that it was only a matter of time before the MIB caught up with him again, and he needed to find a safe place for his daughter. So, starting in 1993 and finishing in June of 1994, he spent 8 years on the local Carthage computer, developing the virtual reality he'd devised for his AI into a new..."

James cut him off. "Ah, I think your math is a little off there, 'Einstein'. If he spent 8 years working on this thing starting in '93, he wouldn't have finished until 2001!"

"He _shouldn't_ have finished until 2001. He was working on turning the virtual reality into a world that a person could be scanned into and live in, a very difficult concept that should have taken even a genius like Hopper far more than a single year to complete. However, in early '94, while he was experimenting with the 'scanner' systems used to get a person into the virtual reality, he accidentally discovered a remarkable side feature of his newest program."

"What was that?"

"Because of the scanners' capability to manipulate subatomic matter (which is how it disassembles your atomic structure and reassembles it as electrical impulses), he was able to trigger a type of exoenergetic reaction between protons and neutrons in the superdense nuclei of certain atoms that made it possible to convert small amounts of matter to _pure energy._ By applying this energy to the unstable spatial environment created by the reaction, he was able to actually bend the fabric of space-time into a fold, jumping himself roughly one day back in time!"

"Time travel. I don't believe it… he _accidentally _invented a time machine? But how would that… Wait… Let me guess, because the computer initiates the reaction, it and anything directly related to it remain intact through the return trip?"

"Precisely! Hopper used the Return to the Past program to stay frozen in time on June 6, 1994 for the seven additional years he needed to complete his work." James leaned back on his heels and gave an impressed whistle.

"That's brilliant, even if it should be impossible! It would even give him a way to keep his work secret, if no one but him was affected by the jumps."

"Yeah, we even used that trick for a while to keep _our _work on the computer a secret! It caused a disastrous problem, though, that Franz didn't anticipate. While he was working on the virtual reality he now called Lyoko, he didn't stop to think that his AI, whom he'd brought with him from Colorado, was also experiencing the time shifts. This is a quantum supercomputer, Franz's solution to the massive amount of computing power necessary to translate a human form into a digital avatar. The memory in this supercomputer functions on the theory of quantum qubits, a way of storing massive amounts of data in patterns of light, and with each Return to the Past a qubit was being added to the computer's memory banks. This addition _doubled_ its computing power with every jump! This is possible because photons of light, as massless particles, can be infinitely compressed into a relatively small amount of space and still exist independently of one another.

"On its own, this wouldn't have been too serious. But over the course of some 2500 jumps back in time, XANA (as a program installed on the supercomputer) was also becoming more powerful! He started stealing copies of Franz's newest programs and modifying them in order to increase his independence from Franz, and he simply waited for his chance to eliminate the man he now blamed for all of his problems. Oblivious to this new threat, Franz Hopper briefly experimented with a method for using the Return trips to logarithmically increase his own intelligence in the same way as the computer. Unfortunately, this resulted in extremely hazardous mental health effects, some of which _I've_ experienced firsthand, so he scrapped the project. XANA didn't get the memo. He integrated a modified version of the program directly into his core programming, increasing his computing power even further with every jump back in time! As a side effect, XANA slowly, surely, and dangerously went _insane_. It's that insanity, that twisted view of the world around him, that has driven XANA to do every terrible thing he's done since."

"So, by this point, Aelita and the MIB were both still completely in the dark about this?"

"Actually, the Men In Black were closing in while Franz was working. He actually discovered the Return to the Past function while attempting to dismantle the scanners to cover his tracks! On the morning of June 7, 1994, all of Franz Hopper's preparations were finished." Jeremie walked to the holoprojector and pointed at the sphere in the center of what James now realized was the virtual world's map. "The original Carthage core still present on the computer was left in XANA's possession, as he would be charged with keeping Lyoko safe from prying eyes and stable as an environment. That core became Sector 5. The four new sectors Franz added, these arms around the core," he pointed out the structures in the hologram, "would become a new home for himself and his daughter, a home the MIB could never invade. The original concept, as far as we could tell from Franz Hopper's diaries, was that either of them would be able to do or create anything on the virtual plane by utilizing a key derived from their DNA signatures, living peacefully together as masters of their own little world without danger. Listening to that, I couldn't help but think that Franz himself was crazy by now! As it turned out, however, he didn't have any more time to spare in getting Aelita to safety. The Men in Black raided the Hermitage _that very morning_, and Franz and Aelita barely escaped to the nearby lab, here."

James turned to Aelita, in shock. "You had to escape a raid on your _home_?"

"Yes, I did." She didn't seem all that bothered by that particular memory… but then, she must have been practiced at rolling with the punches by now. "It wasn't all that difficult, my father had it all planned… we just ran through the sewer system to reach this lab. The Men in Black didn't know where to look for us, so we were never found. We just disappeared."

"That really must have been a miserable experience… I can't imagine."

"Franz transferred them both to the virtual world, escaping their enemies on Earth… but falling right into XANA's trap. He'd finally had it with the orders from Franz, and took this opportunity to deal with his creator on ground where he had the advantage. XANA had stolen a prototype Key to Lyoko from Hopper's computer notes, and used it to create monsters, like the ones you've encountered, to try to kill Aelita and Franz in their own virtual home. With them out of his way, he'd be able to take the world over through its computers and rule it (as his insane mind thought he should) by using his raw intellectual and electronic power! He nearly succeeded, even deleting Franz's DNA signature so that he couldn't escape Lyoko, but Franz managed to save his daughter from the same fate by remotely deactivating the entire system."

James jumped up. "But that would leave them both trapped!"

"They _were_ trapped! For _ten years_ they were sealed in the shut-down computer, until September of 2004. That's where _we_ come in."

Odd chimed in, "Oh, don't be so modest, Jeremie. That's where _you_ came in!"

"Alright, fine. That's where _I_ came in." Jeremie flushed, betraying the pride hidden in his voice. "Late that month, I was rummaging around in an abandoned factory looking for spare parts to finish a robot I was building. I discovered a chamber underneath the factory that contained a supercomputer core. I'm a techie, I've found an amazing hidden computer, what do I do? I turn it on and see what it can do."

"And while you're poking around, you run across a scared 12-year-old girl and a demonic AI, right?"

"Well, at first I actually thought Aelita was an AI living on Lyoko, and XANA managed to stay hidden for a while."

"We think XANA came close to erasing my DNA, and actually did make off with all of my memories before my father shut the computer down. I couldn't remember anything from before Jeremie restarted the supercomputer!" Aelita's entire body screamed with silent fury at the memory of this side effect of XANA's attempt on her life. James could imagine why.

"Man, that sounds terrible. I've forgotten memories I wish I still had, but… to lose everything would be awful!"

"You have no idea!" Jeremie said this as though _he_ knew himself. "We've all tried to help her as much as possible to recover what was lost, but there are _still_ some things XANA stole from her forever. Getting back to the story, though, I kept the discovery to myself until XANA reared his ugly head. He tried to kill me… _twice!_ I suspect he did it to keep Aelita's past from being discovered. That's when I brought Ulrich in to help. Odd was his roommate at the time, and Yumi got involved after being attacked during a sparring match with Ulrich." At James' querying glance, Jeremie added, "They're both students of Pencak Silat, an Indonesian martial art. As a group, we spent the next year keeping XANA from causing any serious damage while I tried to figure out a way to materialize Aelita. As soon as we had pulled her safely out of the computer, we planned to turn it off and shut XANA down."

"That would be kinda hard on Franz Hopper, wouldn't it? And what about XANA's world-domination goals? You can't be trying to tell me that he put all that on hold to deal with four upstart teens."

"We didn't have any idea Franz existed! And XANA had made a mistake in trying to kill Aelita and her father. The prototype Key he'd stolen from Franz worked to manipulate Lyoko, but it didn't give XANA the access he needed to leave the supercomputer and work on the Internet. He needed a genuine Key in order to escape and use the World Wide Web for his schemes. For that, he had to drain Aelita of _her_ DNA patterns and steal _her_ Key!

"Lucky for us, he didn't figure that out until _after _we succeeded in devirtualizing Aelita. _Un_fortunately, he _did_ figure it out before we replaced Aelita's memories. That portion of her mind had been stolen by XANA, making her incomplete and unstable when devirtualized and linking her to the supercomputer. Whenever we tried to shut XANA down, her heart stopped! By the time we solved that problem, XANA had succeeded in draining her DNA and escaped to the Internet. In fact, she would have died then and there if Franz hadn't intervened! He replaced her digital profile with a duplicate, a copy he'd been keeping carefully hidden from XANA, and even restored her memories."

"So that's when you found out who she was!"

"More or less. From that point onward, XANA still gave _us_ a hard time, but his primary concern was using his new freedom to begin his world-takeover plans. He used the other remaining Carthage computers and a handful of other supercomputers that are powerful enough to generate Lyoko Replikas, a sort of partial copy of Lyoko on the Internet that he could use to affect the local environment of the computer generating it."

"By activating the towers on them, right? Odd told me about that."

"Right. He used this innate control over computers all over the world to start building a robotic army which, if it had ever been completed, would have ended human life on Earth! At the same time, he kidnapped a school friend we recruited, William Dunbar, and used him as a sort of unwilling General for his monsters on Lyoko to try to defeat us. We fought back, discovering ways to safely move on the Internet, shut down the Replikas, and eventually save William, but we really needed to destroy XANA once and for all to end his threat."

Jeremie turned to Ulrich to finish the story. He seemed like the strong silent type, his physique a result of his martial arts background and his speech a harsh sense of realism. He was dressed in varying shades of green, from his cargo pants to his military-style jacket to his sports jersey. The camouflage-esque tones seemed to reflect his personality: strong, but hard to spot unless he felt like being seen. James fingered his hat as he thought about that for a moment. _We've got a lot in common._

"Jeremie put together a new multi-agent AI program that we could use to kill XANA. Unfortunately, though, we were short of power during the system's launch. Just when we thought it was hopeless, Franz Hopper reappeared and sacrificed himself to supply the power we needed. Aelita ran the multi-agent program from Sector 5 and killed XANA for good…"

"Or so we thought." Regret, anger, and maybe even sadness were audible components of Yumi's voice. She was dressed all in black, suggesting a dislike for attention. It hinted that she was highly opinionated, but not openly rebellious or even really antisocial. Like Ulrich, she was built like an athlete, and the aggressive self-confidence evident in her eyes shone through her every motion. "About a month ago now, Jeremie's XANA-scanner program, which he luckily never erased, detected an activated tower. We rebooted Lyoko to investigate and found a new Replika on the network, even larger than the old ones! Then Odd calls us and tells us about a bunch of Xanafied vultures that nearly killed him! Somehow, XANA survived, and now _he's back_!" She angrily choked through those words and brought her tightly closed fist down on the concrete wall behind her… with enough force to make James feel the shockwave halfway around the room. _Mental note: do not annoy Yumi Ishiyama!_

"We've used the last month to repair damage to our ship for traveling on the Internet, the _Skidbladnir_, while Odd tried to locate XANA's new computer in your area. We barely had time to finish work on the _Skid _before the new alert this morning. You two got into trouble, and we tried to go in after you. I detected a devirtualization at your end and redirected the materialization from the local computer to this one, thinking Odd was in danger. Then _you_ show up in the scanner instead, faint, and wake up in here! That's how you got to France, and that brings us up to date."

"I liked it. Well-spoken, detailed, and not a little bit dramatic. Fantastic story, it'd probably make a good a kids' TV show! Still, you're not quite finished." His sarcastic tone still suggesting that he had his doubts, James stood up from where he'd been sitting to listen to Jeremie's story. "What was the thing that attacked me in the park, or the giant jellyfish that tried to eat me? And what do you mean _tried_ to go in after us, did something stop you?"

"James, the creature that possessed you was one of XANA's favorite toys, another monster we call a 'ghost' or 'spectre'. It's an unstable solid-energy projection that XANA uses to manipulate living things. Your brain controls your body's functions through electrical impulses that trigger biochemical reactions from the nervous system…"

"Right, we're studying those effects in Biology right now." James had a quick thought. "By the way, Odd, that's what you're taking notes on when we get back." The remark sounded so out-of-place, James wondered if he should have waited to bother Odd about it.

Jeremie continued nonetheless. "These spectres break that connection and hotwire it, destabilizing your subatomic structure and using it to stabilize their own in the process. This creates a XANA-controlled, digitally-generated parasitic entity that mimics the host's appearance. The vultures that attacked you and Odd were the same basic things."

"So this computer can possess people like some kind of _demon_? Alright, that's just freaky!"

"That's right, and it's happened to all of us at some point or another." Ulrich responded. Somehow, he didn't make James feel any better about the teens standing around him. "We're more resistant to the effect, though, because we fight XANA's monsters on Lyoko. We can't figure out how, but that conflict somehow makes us too strong for XANA to control!"

"And the jellyfish," continued Aelita, "was another of XANA's monsters, the Scyphozoa. It acts like a leech, taking away or adding things to your virtual profile when it grabs you. From the way you attacked Odd, we think it put a controller program in your head."

James was suddenly concerned. "I'm sensing a disturbing pattern with all this attention on me, here."

"So am I, and I don't like it." Jeremie returned to his seat and began typing. "When we went onto the network to help you guys, Aelita wasn't able to use her Key to get the _Skid_ into XANA's new Replika. While we were prevented from entering, XANA tried to turn you into a new William Dunbar, a new General for his army. He's trying to kidnap you!" He was clearly very worried about that prospect. James couldn't exactly blame him!

"All the same, it looks like he failed. I'm fine, and all we need to do now is go back in, deactivate the tower Odd told me about, and he's done with Odessa. Is that right, Odd?"

"Yeah, Einstein, just send us back in! We can take down the tower in no time, then destroy the Replika like always. What's the big deal?" Odd sounded as confident in himself as ever, and presented the perfect solution to James' sticky situation. Leave it to Jeremie Belpois to rain on _that_ parade.

"'The big deal', Odd, is that we _can't_ destroy this Replika!" Everyone's faces fell immediately as he began to explain. "We can't afford to lose you in the fight against XANA, and if you're in Texas, we won't be able to get you onto Lyoko from here when we need you. XANA built new scanners into this particular supercomputer to get James onto the Replika, and so we'll need them to keep you in the game. I can try to redirect their connection from the Replika to our Lyoko over the network, but it's a long shot and even then, we need the computer to run the scanners at all! Our entire mission is a whole lot more complicated now, because we'll need to maintain two _different_ Lyokos!"

"There's one other question we need to think about," Yumi interrupted, "if we're keeping the scanners in America, are we letting Odd's roommate here onto the team? No offense, Jeremie, but this didn't exactly end well the last time!" Somehow, James still found her attitude toward _him_ offensive.

"This is different! We're older now. Wiser. I was a fool to let William onto Lyoko untrained and alone, and we all paid dearly for that mistake!" He seemed to briefly direct his gaze toward Aelita when he said this. "I'm not about to make it again. James, since you've already been scanned into the supercomputer's databank, you're directly related to the computer now and immune to the Return to the Past program that could wipe your memory of all this. Like it or not, everyone, we're stuck with him. Until you've finishing training…"

"Whoa, 'training'? Don't _I_ get a say in this?!" James looked up from where he was now leaning against a wall. His face had been growing steadily more concerned as Jeremie outlined his part in all this, and he wasn't too happy about this assumption that he'd just jump right in. "Look, Jeremie, as soon as the tower's deactivated and XANA leaves me alone, I'm going back to Odessa to learn aerospace engineering. I'm freaked out enough as it is, I'm not gonna start running off to a computer world anytime XANA feels like causing trouble. That would seem to be _your_ job, not mine! You've got the necessary experience _and _Aelita, and I've just got a seriously bad day to blame on your big, bad AI! As soon as I'm free and clear, then I'm out of here! I'll be glad to help every now and then, but not without some more time to understand what I'm getting…"

"We don't _have_ that much time!" Ulrich stopped him in mid-sentence, his powerful voice silencing all other sound to make itself heard. He was very quick to make his point. "XANA is already moving, we need to stop him _now_. If he manages to get his army up and running, the entire _world_ is at risk! So sorry, James, but we can't afford to give you much time to think about it. If you're in, we train you immediately. If you're out, we'll need to delete your profile or something and erase your memory to keep you out of harm's way. Are you in or out?" James glanced around the room and saw five serious faces, his roommate's among them, with all their eyes asking the same question. _Of all the things I could have been asked to do, it had to be 'risk your neck to help save the world'?_ He thought about it, about everything that had happened in the short 5 hours since Kiwi had run off. _Wait just one freakin' second…_

"Jeremie, one last question: about XANA's ghosts. When they possess something, is there any physical indication? Flickering, weird movements, a darkening in color… anything?"

"Uh, yeah. All of that, actually. Why?"

"Because I chased _Kiwi_ to the spot where the ghost nabbed me." The neutral expression on James' face froze, a practiced reflex for him that helped to mask a growing fury. "When he acted up and ran away, he turned a dark color for a second, and I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. He was so angry at _something_, he actually had me worried about seeing things… but I think I know what he was mad at now. If Odd was doing all this with Kiwi around before, Kiwi would recognize… a ghost."

Ulrich caught on fast. "XANA sent the ghost after _you_, didn't he? It wasn't a random choice… Kiwi saw it coming, then got turned into live bait to lure you away toward the lab!"

"Yes, Ulrich." James' tone was taking a definite edge, and he was tensing up with anger and an impotent frustration as he realized the full magnitude of this attack. "When I helped stop the vulture attack on Odd, I think I painted a target on the back of my head. I opposed your old friend the AI directly, and that made this _personal!_ No matter what I do, he'll be after me." James realized that he really had no choice in the matter. His hands were tied, and he didn't like that one bit. _No one manipulates me and gets away with it. _"Well, he's going to find that making an American angry is _extremely_ hazardous to his health, especially when that American's a stubborn certified hard case from Texas! Ulrich, Jeremie," James said in an aggressive, but controlled sort of level tone that dripped with a silent _'vengeance_', "I'm in."

"Alright then. Welcome to the team." Yumi got up from her seat. The lack of enthusiasm in her voice suggested she still wasn't too happy with the idea. "Jeremie, are we good to go?"

"Yeah, whenever you're ready. The scanners should have had time to cool down by now, and I've already fixed that problem we were having with the _Skid's_ sonar, so get downstairs and I'll initiate the transfers." He turned back to the monitors in front of his seat and resumed typing as Odd bounded toward a spot on the floor across from the elevator door where there was a steel-rung ladder built into the concrete wall. It appeared to lead upward, until Odd pulled away a sliding plate on the floor to reveal a downward continuation. The four virtual veterans clambered down the narrow shaft with practiced ease, waiting for James in the room below. As he came out of the tunnel, he saw that it was another simple chamber, identical to the one above except for the three large cylindrical devices that stood in the back of it.

Jeremie's amplified voice resonated through speakers in the ceiling that James couldn't quite see: "I'm sending you to the arena in Sector 5. James, I'm sending the girls first, then you'll go through with Odd and Ulrich. Just step inside one of the scanners and I'll do the rest!"

"Understood. Hey guys," James got his new friends' attention, "I was unconscious the first time. Does it hurt?"

"The virtualization? Not at all! Just watch your entry, everybody else here fell flat on their rears the first time through." Aelita was very helpful and reassuring.

"The return trip usually isn't too fun, though." Odd was not.

"Ladies first!" said the intercom. Yumi and Aelita stepped into two of the tall golden tubes, the doors sealing behind them with a sharp hiss. Jeremie began giving vocal commands to the computer.

"Transfer Yumi, Transfer Aelita… Scanner Yumi, Scanner Aelita… Virtualization!" The two scanners gave off a whining crescendo, then reopened their doors to reveal nothing but a rush of flash-frozen air. The girls had disappeared!

"Good grief, you weren't kidding! Are they all right?"

"Yep, and now it's your turn!" Odd and Ulrich stepped into their respective scanners, appearing steely-eyed and ready for action. James just hoped he wouldn't puke in the confined space! He breathed deeply, calming his tense nerves as the door sealed shut.

"Transfer Odd, Transfer Ulrich, Transfer James…" As Jeremie said his name, the inside of the cylindrical scanner lit up. "Scanner Odd, Scanner Ulrich, Scanner James…" A metallic ring rose from the floor, presumably scanning him from bottom to top. At the same time, cool air began streaming past his face. The device began building up the whine that had accompanied the girls' vanishing act. A small window opened up on Jeremie's screen, notification of a DNA abnormality in the transfer. It went unnoticed as the scans of the boys' genetic structures were completed. "Virtualization!" The rush of air picked up speed and the inside of the tube brightened until James was numbed by the cold airflow, until he _was_ a part of the light…

Suddenly, he was floating, suspended spread-eagle above a floor that could only be in that blue nightmare of Sector 5. His numbed senses and body quickly returned to him, and he dropped to the ground, careful to land on the balls of his feet. Aelita had probably been right, a sudden off-angle drop like that could have landed _very_ awkwardly!

"Nice landing, Flyboy." Odd chuckled. "I guess it's really not fair, though. _We_ didn't get a warning!"

"Yeah, I suspect it helps." James chuckled at the somewhat obvious statement. _Ah, the things a guy finds amusing under pressure... _"Anyway, now that we're all here, let's get to it!"

* * *

**Ah, the reader's worst enemy: the cliffhanger. The _real _Lyoko action will begin with Chapter 6, when I finally put the original crew back into the virtual reality, but for now, that's all she wrote... err, he wrote... ah, I wrote... oh, you get the point! If there are any plot holes that you think I left open, please let me know and I'll fill them in. Of course, that means that you need to _review this chapter_! If you don't, I'll turn you into a flea... a harmless little flea. Then, I'll put that flea in a box, put _that_ box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself. And when it arrives... I'll smash it with a hammer!**


	7. Trial by Fire, Part 1

**Hello, again! Well, it took me _forever_ to write, (Being such a critical transition point in the story, this chapter and the next one were very important to get right!) but here it is, Chapter 6. The Lyoko Warriors are back in the saddle, and the posse's about to discover that there's something rotten in Dodge! XANA's up to no good, as always, and my OC is now officially along for the ride. Please enjoy, and review if you can. I'm desperate for feedback here!**

**Speaking of feedback, I'd also like to take some time here to thank Kittyclaw, Lizzpercush, James the Lesser, and Pattons for their helpful advice. Specifically, Kitty, Lizz, and James took the time to respond to my direct requests for help, and I can't tell you guys enough how much I appreciate that. Apparently, the universal consensus was that I use too many exclamation marks, Odd's characterization needed work, I use too many localized lists, and James was drifting too close to a dreaded Mary Sue. Having reread my own work, (I've since rewritten the preceding chapters) I'm stunned to say that that's all exactly right! With any luck, all of these issues should be resolved tonight. Thanks again, guys!**

**Now, without further ado, let the carefully-choreographed madness resume.  
Ryan Black out.**

* * *

Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
20:24:57  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-6  
"Trial By Fire, Part 1"

I was furious. I'm talking about a blind, fuming, foaming-at-the-mouth-type _rage!_ XANA suckered me into this, and then he left me no way out. I didn't get a _say_ in whether or not I joined the Lyoko Warriors! For the next five years, I've been calling that forced decision into question; curse, or blessing in disguise? Either way you want to look at it, things just got worse with the results of my first mission…

***

'_I'm in.' 'Let's get to it!' Right. Great going there, James! What's that saying about making decisions when you're angry? Oh, yeah… NOT TO! Are you insane?_

_Yeah, I know, I know. You're probably right, too, but I'm already here… Wait, am I trying to explain myself to MYSELF?_

_Yes, you are, and frankly I'm somewhat concerned by that._

_Not helping, pal!_

Jeremie snapped James out of his conflicted inner dialogue with a simple announcement. "Aelita, you're almost to the elevator pad. I'm sending you the lift…" The boy genius was speaking through an audio link, safe and sound in his command chair at the lab watching a map of their route.

James was following the others on a winding, narrow path through that strange blue labyrinth of the digital world, Sector 5, and he was starting to have second thoughts. Odd had clearly been able to fend for himself, but James couldn't help but look at the sprinting Warriors in front of him and wonder whether he really _was_ in over his head. All of them were clad in colored bodysuits similar to Odd's bright purple cat costume, giving the entire squad the rather unimpressive appearance of a B-grade superhero movie._ At least_, he thought for a moment, _I don't feel so silly in my green Jedi costume now._

"We're nearly there, any sign of XANA's monsters?" Yumi shouted at the sky.

"Nothing yet, but I'll keep looking." The endless matte-blue walls that James had been staring at cut off suddenly as the entire group emerged onto an outcropping similar to the one on the outside of the dome. It stood between two layers of the inner core, facing a black wall that looked vaguely metallic. Cold and industrial, it at least provided some relief from the constant depressing blue of this portion of the computer world! As James continued to watch, a long, flat platform sparked and screeched down the face of that wall, stopping with an industrial-sounding 'thud' at the Warriors' level. It was marked on a bisected sphere mounted to the undercarriage with the irritatingly omnipresent Eye of XANA.

"Alright, Jeremie, we're here." Aelita was the only one who came close to Odd in terms of extreme color: her bodysuit matched the bubble-gum pink color of her hair, (strangely, she claimed it was natural) streaked through with white in a few places to give her a sort of combative, yet regal look. Her status as Franz Hopper's daughter (and thus the heir to his world, Lyoko) probably had something to do with that touch to her virtual appearance.

"You need to hurry when you get up there, guys; I think XANA's spotted you. There's a squadron of Mantas entering the _Skid_ hangar from the celestial dome, and there are bound to be Creepers not far behind you." The small band ran onto the elevator and it rushed upward toward their destination. Everyone was on edge during the ascent, most of them in anticipation of a return to action… and one because of a deathly fear of it.

James broke the momentary nervous silence with yet another question. "Hey Yumi, what are 'Creepers'? I've seen the Mantas, and I don't want to meet any cousins of _those_ things by surprise!"

"Creepers are big brown lizards. They crawl around on two legs, growl at anything they don't like, and the laser cannon in their mouths seriously hurts." Yumi said. She was much less flashy in appearance than Odd or Aelita, her suit colored a deep burgundy-red trimmed with gray. Somehow, the look fit her perfectly. "Don't get hit by one if you can help it."

"Got it. Man, you guys did this for _three years_? It feels nerve-wracking, playing the hero. How'd you handle the _pressure_ for that long?"

"You get used to it after a while." Ulrich said. "I look at it like 'it's something I _have to_ do', so I do it." He was dressed in brilliant yellow and black, a sharp contrast to the subdued green shades he preferred in the real world, and he also seemed to be the only one present with an obvious weapon: a pair of matched Oriental swords strapped to his back.

"I can understand that…" James could recall saying something similar to Jack during the vulture attack. Ulrich really _was_ a lot like him.

Jeremie broke in over his radio link. "You're approaching the _Skid _hangar. Better get in there quick; I haven't had time to upgrade the new sub's shields yet, and they're getting weaker." He was met with a barrage of excited responses:

"No worries, Jeremie."

"On our way, Jeremie!"

"No problem, Einstein!"

"I'm good to go."

"Alright, let's get to it!"

Jeremie continued giving directions from his end. "James, pay attention to Ulrich. He has the most experience with swords, so he might be able to help you with your lightsaber. Also, try to hang back for now. You're on this trip to _learn_, not to fight, is that clear?"

"Understood. Trust me, Jeremie, the last thing I want to do is rush into a war zone around here. After all, that went _so _well for me the first time…" Really, he'd have preferred to be back in his room, safe and sound right at that very moment. _Oh, well. So much for that…_ James pulled the short metal cylinder of his lightsaber from where it rested on his left hip, spinning it around in the palm of his hand before activating the pulsating green blade. _At the very least, this is an awesomely cool sword! I might want to come back here just for this thing. _"Hey, it's not evil anymore…" It was a childish thought, but it drew Aelita's immediate attention faster than James thought a silly quip should have.

"Keep in mind, James, this is no game!" James didn't know it, but she spoke from painful experience. She'd been the only one with William Dunbar when he'd blundered into the Scyphozoa on his first mission, thinking it was no more dangerous than a video game. He'd made similar remarks at the time… just before being kidnapped and twisted into a dangerous servant of XANA. "If you're not careful in here, you could be trapped in the system forever, like my father was… or worse!" Odd stepped in front of her before she could continue.

"Relax, Princess, or you're gonna make him nervous. Anyway, you're not as much fun to be around when you're mad…" She gave James one last hard stare from her deep green eyes, then let it go. She walked to the end of the lift and bled off the tension of the moment getting ready to disembark. James checked himself for charring, then gave a quick sigh of relief for his friend's intervention.

"Thanks, Odd, but she's actually got a point. Odds are that by the end of the day, I'll barely survive doing something painful and incredibly stupid. She's got a right not to trust me yet!" The lift stopped at another platform, this one leading to a large door that seemed to open onto a vast, dark chamber. The sporadic red flashes of laserfire told him that the Mantas had beaten them here.

Odd gave James his best friendly advice for the engagement. "Relax! Just don't shake hands with any strange jellyfish, and you'll be fine."

"Thanks, Odd." James' deadpan tone said it all. _Right. That's going in the Lyoko Field Manual! 'Don't get friendly with enormous, leechlike scyphozoans which have attempted to eat you in the past.' Now I'll just shelf that right next to 'Captain Obvious' Guide to the Universe'…_

"Now then, shall we charge?" Odd gave an exaggerated bow to his comrades, flourishing his hands to make a sarcastic point.

Ulrich responded by pulling his twin blades from their sheathes. The two curved sabers glowed bright blue for a moment before fading back to 30 inches of slate-gray steel. "I don't see why we should wait for an invitation!"

"Banzai!" Odd ran through the door ahead, closely followed by Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita. James waited for the last of the group to get through, then followed them in. He was barely inside before the Lyoko Warriors were halfway across the room, already attacking the 3 Mantas shooting at a massive construct suspended in the chamber's center. It resembled a large ball made of two wide cones for the primary cockpit, a panoramic window affording the pilot a wide view of their surroundings, with two long, curving wings and a slender outrigger reaching downward from that main structure. Mounted to the sides of the outrigger were four smaller vessels, each one a streamlined compartment for the mother ship's passengers that appeared to be capable of operating independently.

"_Skidbladnir_, I take it_._"

"Technically, it's the _Skidbladnir II. _XANA destroyed the first one during our last mission."

"Gotcha. Hey, Jeremie, are those minisubs actually functional?" Turning back to the action, he lost Jeremie's answer watching in disbelief as Ulrich spun his dual swords through the air in front of him, deflecting the incoming shots from XANA's creatures without even breaking a sweat. It had taken James a liberal use of the Force to do that, and even then, he was clumsy about it… This was a truly graceful swordsman at work! One of the three beasts suddenly exploded as a circular projectile buzzed straight through it, flying back along its curved path to land in Yumi's hand. She folded the projectile, a tessen fan, flat and tucked it into a gauntlet on her wrist. _So, everybody's armed. Yikes, it's like Franz Hopper expected self-defense to be necessary in his 'world without danger'!_ James leaned up against a nearby wall… and turned white when a series of red bolts traveled through the space his head had occupied just a moment before. One of the Mantas had spotted fresh meat standing in the door, and it wasn't about to let him get away!

"Laser arrows!" Odd shouted as he directed a volley of his personal little wrist-rockets into the inverted Manta's left wing and back, sending it spiraling downward before it exploded spectacularly on a sublevel of the hangar floor. Even that impressive display, though, didn't quite match Ulrich's. He leaped skyward, blocked another shot to his chest, and landed… and landed… and landed. James blinked, not sure he was seeing properly. There were now _three_ Ulrich Sterns facing the lone Manta, and two of them began sprinting faster than his eyes could track. They became yellow streaks, running _up _the hangar's wall before leaping out across open space, slashing four tightly spaced wounds into the hopelessly confused ray, and landing to fuse back with the third clone. Ulrich coolly sheathed his swords as the flying fish vanished behind him in a blast of pixels. _It's true. Cool guys don't look at explosions._

"Whoa!" The entire battle had lasted about 30 seconds, and the Lyoko Warriors were now alone in the vast room. "That was _incredible_!"

"Great work, guys. Good to see you haven't lost your touch! Now get to the _Skid_. I'll redirect some of the energy from the sector's core to shore up the shields, but it'll take a few minutes. Keep an eye open for more monsters."

"Gotcha, Einstein. We'll sit tight. Hey James, whaddaya think of our ship?" Odd gestured at the hulking fuselage of the _Skidbladnir_, floating in its dry dock above the hangar's floor. A shimmering transluscent layer of light hovered just millimeters from the vessel's surface, an energy field that made up the shields Jeremie was reinforcing. Even as he watched, that field pulsed and grew more powerful.

James gave an impressed whistle. "That's seriously cool, I've gotta admit. How long did it take you to…" He trailed off. Something was nagging at the back of his head. He turned back to the door… and swung his saber into the path of an oncoming laser bolt! There were three creatures standing there; (if you could call it standing) the brown lizards Yumi had described as Creepers. They were every bit as ugly as he'd expected, much like enormous reptilian sloths with armored reptilian tails. They growled unpleasantly, seeming to _spit_ powerful red beams from the laser cannons hidden in their mouths. James leaped out of their way, using the Force to propel himself through their fire and into their midst. The powerful energy directed him flawlessly, putting him just where he needed to be to score a hit. He carved a vertical slice into the first of the monsters and dodged away as it exploded.

Back in the lab, Jeremie was watching this unfold as a window opened on his screen, flashing an urgent warning about a dangerous program being run by XANA. It looked like an attempted connection to one of the Warriors…

"James, watch yourself! XANA's trying something new on you, and I can't figure out a way to stop him!" James cleaved through the second of the powerful Creepers, plunging his glowing green sword into the doomed monster's head before stepping back to a safe distance.

"What do you mean, watch myself? These things are hardly a chal… challenge… ah!" He doubled over, his debilitating headache from before returning to freeze him completely. It was a sharp, knifing pain that jabbed into his skull like a small forest of red-hot nails, and he couldn't think at all as it forced him down. His mind barely registered an impact on his left hand, and he didn't even bother opposing a pressure on his torso that pinned him to the floor. When the pain subsided some ten seconds later, James was gasping for breath… and staring into the last Creeper's face. He reached out for the lightsaber, a few inches from his outstretched fingers. The Creeper stomped hard with one outstretched leg to stop his left arm, growled at James with a raspy, guttural sound, and began charging a powerful laser bolt between its open jaws just a foot from James' terrified face.

"Ah, shoot…" James thought about his exclamation for a single fleeting moment: _why 'ah, shoot?' Isn't that what I'm trying to avoid right now? Man, do I choose some really bad moments to find something humorous…_ Just as the charging cannon went white and the beast rapidly closed and reopened its mouth to fire, the Creeper took on a funny pink sheen… and exploded! A relieved James Pierce tilted his head back on the ground to see Aelita standing over him, her left hand still holding a pulsing energy sphere like the one she'd thrown at his attacker.

"What was that about a challenge?" she said as the ball dissipated. Her tone was playful, mocking his misfortune, and he knew it was well-intentioned… but he was easily offended.

"Hey, don't go blaming me! XANA jumped me, and there's no way to avoid an attack _inside_ my head! Jeremie, what _was_ that and why does it keep happening? The same thing hit me when the Mantas attacked earlier, and again just before I turned on Odd."

"I don't know for the moment." He began speed-typing again, looking for a solution. "The computer's logs show a funny DNA abnormality that cropped up during your transfer, and I spotted something similar when I brought you in. It could just be a bug in your profile that XANA knows how to take advantage of, but I'll run a diagnostic on the DNA trace to see if there's anything else to it."

"In the meantime, guys, we need to get back to business." Yumi placed her hands on her hips. "Are the _Skid's_ shields about ready, Jeremie?"

"Yeah, I'm done recharging them. James, you'll take the fourth Navskid_,_ the one I made for William Dunbar. If you need to, it can function on its own for a limited amount of time on the network, but for now don't try to leave the _Skid_ unless it's absolutely necessary." The other Warriors were heading toward an outcropping near the docked vessel's leading edge, so James turned to follow them.

"Maybe this isn't something you want to talk about, but where exactly _is_ William? From what you told me, he was freed from XANA's control just before you thought you killed him. Why isn't he back here with you guys?"

"He would be, except for his unique relationship to XANA. The last time we let him near the supercomputer, even _after_ we freed him, XANA possessed him and nearly prevented me from finishing the multi-agent program! He's just been too close to XANA to risk bringing him back, so we left him out. Right now, he's at college in Germany with Ulrich. As long as we don't need to bother with a Return to the Past and Ulrich can keep a secret, he shouldn't suspect a thing."

"That's kinda rough on him, don't you think…"

"No it's not being _rough_ on William to not trust him after what he put us through!" Yumi was indignant. "He nearly killed every last one of us while under XANA's influence, _actually _killed Aelita once, and acted like an immature showboater anytime he wasn't being used as a puppet! If you ask me, it was a bad idea letting him onto the team in the first place…" The bitterness in her voice suggested to James that Lyoko business wasn't the only reason she didn't want William Dunbar around. Something about Odd's stories came to mind…

"Yumi, cut it out!" Ulrich interrupted her. "William's out, and that's the end of it." _Ah, there's the solution!_ According to Odd, Yumi and Ulrich were crazy about each other, although neither of them was bold enough to admit it, and William had been caught in the middle when he developed a crush on Yumi. Talk about your high school dramas… even in this decidedly unusual set of circumstances.

"Thank you, Ulrich. James, if you'll just step onto the pad by the loading dock with the others, I'll do the rest." James walked onto the pad, made up of 5 interconnected circles laid out like the fifth face of a die, with Aelita stepping onto the central spot and the 3 remaining Warriors taking the other corners.

"Energize!" James watched in semi-stunned fascination as each of the other four Warriors faded into an almost liquid state of translucence before disappearing completely. Just one more impossible sight in a day filled with them! _Before long, I'll be used to stuff like this. Huh, and to think I woke up this morning just hoping to have a good time with Jack's limited vocabulary… _He, too, had his vision blurred for a moment as Jeremie transported him from the pad on the floor into the cockpit of William's… no, _his_ Navskid. The compact space had a nice setup, the controls of the minisub more similar to a flight simulator than the ship's wheel he'd expected. _Still, if all goes to plan, I won't need them at all._

Aelita's voice came over the intercom. "Cockpit to Navskids, ready for liftoff?" Apparently, she was piloting the mothership. _Hope she's a good driver…_

"Ready to go, Aelita."

"All set, Princess."

"I'm good to go."

"Roger that."

"Releasing supports." Jeremie pulled the electromagnetic clamps holding _Skidbladnir _in place away, freeing the ship to move.

"Powering vertical." A pair of thrusters on the mighty vessel's wings lit off, pushing her skyward. James looked out from his cockpit, on the vessel's relative underside, and watched the walls of the hangar drop away as the ship smoothly lifted from its position in the holding dock. Aelita piloted the _Skid_ with remarkable precision, pulling out of the hangar's open roof and into the outer dome of Sector 5, the data-covered walls of the massive sphere presenting a seemingly impenetrable barrier to further flight.

"Opening the west tunnel… now." Incredibly, Jeremie stopped one of the four large streams of brilliant-white light flowing from the core through tunnels in the dome, leaving the conduit temporarily open to travel for the Warriors. Aelita flew straight through the narrow tunnel, coming out of it into a blindingly bright environment that seemed to be void of anything but winding, twisting cables that stretched outward from the brilliantly lit outer wall of Sector 5. The powerful vessel continued forward, slowly revealing a landmass in the distance that James took to be another of Lyoko's sectors. Aelita slowed to a stop beneath the floor of a largely sand-and-stone environment resembling a desert.

"Shields, navigation system, laser generators… all online, Jeremie. Ready to dive!"

"I'll send you the coordinates of the Replika as soon as you're in the digital sea." A few whirring sounds, the blast of _Skidbladnir's_ powerful engines, and a burst of acceleration, and the ship was rocketing downward toward the liquid data layer far below.

"So, Odd, why exactly do you guys need this boat to travel on the Internet? I mean, if we're all virtual entities right now, shouldn't we be able to go anywhere as long as there's a computer to generate our presence? I can't imagine that Franz Hopper would program drowning into his 'world without danger'."

Jeremie answered his question instead. "The digital sea is a collection of random data that is used to maintain Lyoko and its connection to the World Information Network. Your virtual avatars are merely a digital projection of your bodies controlled by a link to your consciousness, and thus are made up of nothing but data. When you fall into the digital sea, your virtual incarnation dissolves into the data stream, deleting your digital profile and leaving you stranded… unless you can differentiate and locate all the parts of your body mixed into the _absolutely identical_ mass of virtual particles. It's a very dangerous and difficult process, requiring you to…"

"In English, Flyboy, anybody that falls into the digital sea gets absorbed, permanently stuck without a body." Odd's interrupting translation was easy to grasp, and James imagined that he'd been getting good at simplifying such concepts for as long as he'd known Jeremie. "That's what happened to Aelita's dad, and Yumi even fell in once. We were barely able to save her, though, because of a program _I_ made."

"You're a programmer? You never mentioned…"

"Well, I didn't write the program _per se_. Actually, I just accidentally dropped a bunch of candy on Jeremie's keyboard while he was out of the room and typed in a good code. It only worked once, and I don't think I'll ever manage to do that again."

"Yikes! Yumi was really lucky that day, then…" _So, fall in the water, get trapped inside of this nightmarish place… I'm going to have to be careful not to botch this!_

"Yeah." Yumi interrupted. "I wouldn't have fallen in in the first place, except that there was a monster shooting at Aelita. I jumped at it to throw off its aim, and we both fell in."

"Anyway, after XANA escaped and we needed to follow him, Jeremie and Aelita put together this submarine that we could use to get onto the network without becoming a part of the scenery. So, we have the _Skid_!" The revelation of the sea's effect on an unshielded body had James a little bit panicked as Aelita steered _Skidbladnir _directly into the apparently lethal ocean. Fortunately, it seemed that Jeremie and Aelita knew what they were doing, and the hull of the virtual ship held firm as they dove in.

***

Jeremie Belpois stretched his legs in the command chair of Franz Hopper's laboratory. He grinned. This lab had become a second home for him, the chair a seat of power. In here, he'd made his four closest friends, become a hero, pushed his intellectual prowess to the limit, _and_ saved Aelita… He'd grown up here. All of that made this place one of the few that he treasured above all others, and he hadn't gone much more than a week since defeating XANA without visiting the factory at least once. With XANA's return, it was just like old times, doing battle against his arch-foe alongside his best friends again… _if only that didn't mean putting the world (and Aelita) in danger again! It's all so risky… _Jeremie shook himself out of the daydream he'd slipped into for a fleeting moment and checked the location of the _Skid_.

"Aelita, you should see a hub coming up at 35 degrees to your west." The distances involved in getting from France to Texas, even in the virtual realm, required jumping through network hubs connecting the various servers that managed the Internet. The sub would warp into a virtual hyperfluid state similar to that experienced by human beings entering Lyoko, then slow back down in an entirely different part of the world-wide web.

"I see it, Jeremie. Going to broadband acceleration in 15 seconds…" The short timer ran down, and the _Skid_ jumped, vanishing from his sight except for a confirmation of the successful transfer and a timer for their projected arrival. It would be roughly a minute before communications would be possible again, so Jeremie checked the other aspects of the mission. The group's Lyoko-based vehicles were ready when they were needed, the code-cracker program for entry to the Replika was running, his diagnostic on Odd's roommate was nearly complete and hadn't picked up anything unusual, the XANA-scan was still picking up just one activated tower, and all the Replika energy readings appeared normal, so there weren't any nasty surprises on the horizon. Overall, it was a textbook Replika hunt… except that this time, it would be a catch-and-release.

***

A gray dome interlocked with the surrounding blue towers and tunnels that composed the digital sea of the Internet gave off a loud blast and a bright flash as a virtual vessel emerged from a broadband transfer. The interior view of the Sea was stunning, a virtual city the same blue shade as the stringent Sector 5, filled with the square-edged masses that were computer towers of varying sizes attached together by the glowing white strands of data networks, all submerged in the roiling mass of random particles that made up the fluid void. It was through this alien world, devoid of all other human beings, that the _Skidbladnir_ traveled. Aelita Hopper demonstrated her skill at the controls of the ship she'd constructed as she decelerated out of the jump.

"Jeremie, do you read me?" She was a few seconds behind schedule, a result of an unusually heavy amount of traffic on the network. If he kept to his usual routine, Jeremie would be panicking by now!

"Yes, I read you. Everyone accounted for?" _Strange… no gasping, no fainting, not even his 'heart attack' line._

"Yeah, we're all here, Einstein." Odd sounded impatient. "Which way to the Replika?"

"Odd, you're not steering! Aelita, the Replika is about ten degrees east of your current heading. I'm sending you the coordinates…" Ordinarily, he would have simply told her the coordinates, but the Internet's strange geography meant that the _Skid's_ navigation system was needed to decipher the complex codes for locating a given object or terminal.

"This is an incredible view!" James was sitting in his Navskid cockpit, marveling at the scenery. The bulk of the ship had rotated around the cockpit so that the outrigger was facing the direction of travel after leaving the data hub, so he was in a better position now to have a good look at the environment. It took effort for him to remember that, breathtaking though it was, it was all a digital illusion.

"Yeah, I love coming here." Yumi agreed with him. "It's probably my favorite part of the virtual world."

"So Franz Hopper designed all this? Now I wish I could have met him… your dad must have been a great guy, huh, Aelita?" In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have touched on such a delicate subject.

"Yes, my father was…" she struggled to find the words, "He was one of a kind. He was a great scientist, and an even greater teacher, but all he ever worried about at home was me. He never let me catch on to _why_ he was so worried, just kept trying to keep me safe and happy. I just regret that we didn't manage to get him off Lyoko before…" The _Skid _gave a slight shudder as her pilot held back tears.

"We did all we could, Princess." Ulrich did his best to calm her down. "He knew what he was doing, and he was thinking of you when he did it. It doesn't matter now, just so long as you remember him."

"You've still got us here, Aelita." Yumi sounded unusually sympathetic. Not that sympathy was out of her character, mind you, it just usually didn't manifest itself very readily. "We're your friends. We won't leave you alone, and as long as we're still fighting XANA, your dad didn't die for nothing!"

Now _there_ was a thought. Aelita's father had built all of this, the entire virtual world, for _her safety. _If XANA won, if he attacked mankind with the armies he was constructing and took it over, Franz Hopper's legacy would be one of death, doom, and destruction, and his reputation would be forever tarnished. Stopping XANA and getting on with her life was a way of honoring her dad's memory… and making the most of his sacrifice. The enormity of it all was overwhelming, even to a newcomer, and James was suddenly struck by the exact nature of his own new mission. _Wow… there's no walking away now, no matter how much I want to. It just wouldn't be right, not after hearing _that_! Blasted conscience…_

"Thanks, guys. I'm okay now." Aelita rubbed the drying tears from the corners of her eyes and her usual steely determination returned to her voice. "Jeremie, which way to the Replika?"

"Turn to heading 11.38, about 30 degrees east of your current orientation. You should be able to see the sphere soon." The ship gracefully rolled right, banking toward the target of the Lyoko Warriors' attention: an increasingly large dome-like structure on the horizon of the undersea world. It seemed innocent enough on the outside: square gray panels, each different than the others, made up the dome, and it appeared to have some kind of a claw-like protrusion extending from its base. Then, James took into account the speed they were traveling. _We're approaching that thing much more slowly than we should… unless… holy crap!_

He looked again with fresh eyes, and realized what it was he was seeing: each of the 'small' squares making up the outer wall could easily swallow the _Skidbladnir_ whole with room for dessert, and the 'claw' at the base, which seemed insignificantly tiny at a distance, was actually a portal that could easily have accommodated an aircraft carrier, let alone the little submarine! The Replika was massive, and they were going to try to _disable_ it.

"Why's this one so much bigger than the old Replikas? Is XANA super-sizing his sectors or something?" Odd, too, seemed put off by the size of the virtual ball. His veteran status made that somewhat worrying for his rookie roommate!

"That's what I can't figure out. When I try to access the Replika for more information, I meet a security lock I can't crack. Sending you guys in there directly is the only way to know for sure, and the only way I can think of to get a link working with the supercomputer generating it. Either way, best not waste time! I don't know how long we'll have before XANA figures out what's up…" Aelita pushed the stick in her left hand forward and dove toward the globe's entryway.

***

Jeremie monitored the flight as he continued to double-check his end of the mission. It was an annoying habit he'd fallen into since shutting the supercomputer down, always second-guessing his work, but he didn't think it was all that serious. Just a little tiresome every now and then… _Vehicles, entry code, super-scan, Replika energy readings_…

"Oh, the diagnostic's finished, James. All right, let's see what the trouble is…" The program had analyzed the scanner data from James Pierce's transfer and had come back with details on the strange DNA abnormality that kept manifesting itself. The computer code translation of James' deformed genetic sequence seemed wrong somehow, just… off. Aelita broke his concentration.

"Jeremie, I'm activating the Key." She was, at that very moment, using her DNA signature to override the Lyoko copy's locking mechanism. After that, it would be Jeremie's job to hack the door itself and grant the team access to the Replika.

"Standing by on the entry code…"

"Uh, is that supposed to happen?" The tone of Odd's comment gave Jeremie reason to worry.

Aelita came back a moment later and confirmed it. "We've got a problem, Jeremie. My Key's not working, the lock doesn't respond." He stared at the screen in worried confusion.

"That's not possible, Aelita! Try it one more time, I'll monitor the uplink. It must have been a glitch or something…" She put her hand to the scanner pad they'd built into her cockpit, allowing the _Skid's _computer to read her DNA and send it in a tightband data stream to the sealed portal entrance, declaring Aelita's identity and authority to open the door. The transfer was played out on Jeremie's monitor in the supercomputer's complex quantum code, then in a translated code that he could read.

A moment later, it was clear to him that she was right. Her DNA Key wasn't working. The only explanation would be that someone changed the locks, and that 'someone' could only be XANA. _But how could he modify the Replika's core codes without disrupting the Replika's stability? Unless…_ The Replikas had always been copies of Lyoko's individual sectors, taken verbatim from Franz Hopper's original source code. The removal and replacement of such a vital component as the Hopper family's Keys would surely destabilize a mere copy. But a more sophisticated duplicate with a _new_ base code…

"Oh, no… this is terrible! Why didn't I see it sooner? Aelita, your Key isn't working because XANA has changed the necessary codes permitting access. He has a new set of Keys, and we don't."

"What are you trying to say, that he's locked us out?" Ulrich sounded very upset.

"For the time being, yes."

The passive German became extremely agitated as he realized what that entailed. "But that means we can't deactivate the tower… or any other towers he activates, for that matter!"

Yumi agreed. "If XANA can keep us out of his new Replikas, then we can't fight him at all!"

"But how could he do that with a Replika?" Aelita asked. "My genetic patterns are hardwired into Lyoko's core programs, they can't be replaced!"

"No they can't… if you're using _Lyoko's_ source codes."

"That doesn't make any sense, Jeremie! There _are_ no other codes to use for something like this, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that XANA has mimicked the layout and appearance of Lyoko, but has changed the source codes from your father's programming to his own; that he now holds the Key to an entirely new and fully formed _second Lyoko_!" The airwaves went silent. Aelita slumped back in her chair, turning white at the thought of XANA having his own world to play in now. Before, he'd been stealing and copying her father's work to usurp his claim (and her own) to Lyoko, and trying to keep Aelita too ignorant or weak to stop him. Now he'd be crafting his own programs, his own world… and without her Key's overriding functions, the team was rendered harmless to XANA's plans because there was no way to deactivate his towers! He was untouchable, invincible. He'd won…

_Daddy, I'm so sorry._

* * *

**Ooh, how thrilling! I realize that this cliffhanger actually doesn't amount to much, since I'm publishing the next chapter simultaneously, but I can dream, right? Now then, I'm off to publish the next part of my precious story... yes, mine, my own... MY PRECIOUS! The filthy, tricksy little hobbitses, they stoles it from us, we must haves it! Hehhehheh... Seeya in a few minutes!**


	8. Trial by Fire, Part 2

**Howdy! Well, here we go again, continuing straight from the previous chapter (At first, this was just going to be one really long chapter, then I split it apart at the conveniently-centered point of maximum tension.) with James' first mission as a Lyoko Warrior. This Chapter 7 will reveal his role in the coming chapters, as well as set a motivation for everyone to accept him... and for him to stick around! XANA, the poor sap...he's got no idea that I've got it in for him. Kinda sad, eh?  
Enjoy your read, and please review my work.  
Ryan Black out.**

* * *

Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
20:39:12  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-7  
"Trial By Fire, Part 2"

Ulrich rocked back on his heels… not something easily done in the cramped space of his Navskid's cockpit. Their enemy was untouchable now! He'd spent three _years_ fighting this thing, watched his closest friends (and Yumi) take beating after beating at this program's hands, nearly been killed any number of times, and had even gone one-on-one against XANA himself (in several different forms) and had _always_ come out on top! Now, his best efforts were null, nicht, nada, nyet, zilch, bubkas!

_Honor clearly doesn't matter with XANA involved. If he wasn't such a coward, we'd have destroyed him already! _Ulrich was German by ancestry, but his heart coursed with the black-and-white mentality of a Samurai; he saw XANA's doings, especially what he'd done to Aelita in the past, as the ultimate refusal to play by the rules of morality, evidence of a willingness to do anything, to kill anyone, to destroy whatever it took to _win_ with no regard whatsoever for the cost of his actions. His blood ran hot with rage.

"Jeremie, is there any other way in? Hacking, a Return to the Past? _Anything_?"

"No." His sad, defeated tone said that he'd already considered all other options and they weren't going to work, no matter what he tried. The stuttering and breaks in Jeremie's speech (his ultimate sign of dread and hopelessness) said that this was far more serious than anything Ulrich could have imagined. "The Replika's defenses are much too strong for me, even if I had the time to try to crack them, which I don't. I can't believe it… we're… _powerless…_"

"Are you telling me I'm trapped here, that I can't even go back home?!" James had absolutely no intention of staying _here_, that much was certain. "Great, this day just seems to keep getting better, no thanks to you! Nice work, _Einstein_!"

"Hey, th... this isn't my fault…" Jeremie sounded well and truly skewered, his self-confidence in the second-deepest hole it had ever been.

"Watch it, Flyboy!" Odd came to his old friend's defense. "If there was anything he could do to help you, he'd do it in a microsecond! But there's not, so don't go beating him up about it!" At that, James buttoned his lip.

"What about brute force?" Yumi spoke up from her Navskid, the arguing roommates stopping to listen. "My brother told me once that there are three ways to get through a locked door: pick the lock, find a window, or just break the lock off. Trust me, he's done all three to my bedroom at least once, and they all work perfectly."

Odd grinned. "Einstein says he can't pick the lock…"

Jeremie's voice stopped breaking as he continued Odd's train of thought. "And there are no windows on a Replika…"

"So we try to break the door down!" Aelita exclaimed as she swung the _Skid_ around. She rotated the submarine's outrigger back to the forward-facing 'flight' position. "Jeremie, can you access the laser generators and link all the _Skid's _power into a single shot?"

"Giving you all she's got…" The weapons-control board to Aelita's right glowed, registering a massive overload. There would only be one shot at this, but (she hoped) she would only need one…

"Target acquired… locked… fire!" The mighty _Skidbladnir_ bucked as two massive beams of brilliant light leaped from her cannons mounted behind the Navskids. The two massive bolts crackled, sizzled, and wound themselves together as they covered the distance to the Replika's locked gate.

"Better hope this works…" Ulrich muttered this under his breath, but the radio link between the Navskids meant that everyone heard him. Not that it mattered… everyone was thinking the same thing. The moment of truth arrived: the two overcharged torpedoes struck the surface of the massive lock simultaneously, exploding into a wispy fireball several times larger than the entire _Skidbladnir! _James was stunned. _We were sitting in here with _that_ behind us?! What kind of crazy…_

"Well, did it work?! Someone please tell me it worked!" Jeremie was on the edge of his command seat, literally biting his nails off. The next few seconds could mean the difference between total defeat and continuing the fight…

"I'm looking, Jeremie, but the blast cloud is blocking my view. We need to wait for it to clear up." Even as Aelita spoke, the plasmic discharge from the incredible blast was being swept away by the digital sea's currents. She peered through the fog, willing her eyes to pierce through the thinning veil…

"It's no good, Jeremie. There's not a scratch… We just don't have the power to break it."

In the lab, Jeremie was distraught. _After all we've done… all the years we've spent… all the close calls… all of it… for nothing! _He lost all ability to speak, to think. Jeremie Belpois was paralyzed. XANA had finally found a way to stop his enemies from interfering in whatever he was doing… not to mention that Odd and James couldn't even get back to Odessa now, and questions would be asked that he couldn't afford to answer.

James tried to think of options. _No, there are no other options. Like Yumi said, we need to pick the lock, (can't happen) find a window, (doesn't exist) or break the door… no, wait. She said to break the _lock_! I wonder… _He looked at the closed door in front of him. The locking mechanism resembled a large disk, sealed to the tunnel's mouth, attached to a long arm that would drop it out towards the bottom of the entrance. Once it was disengaged, there appeared to be a number of arms underneath it arranged in a sort of cone that would fold back and out of the way to allow passage.

Experimentally, James tried to access the Force. Oddly enough, this particular place was _saturated_ with the energy, almost as though being in the Sea increased his power. It _radiated_ from the sealed Replika, a tantalizing clue to what might be inside. The seal bore the three rings and four outer tabs of the Eye of XANA… a good focal point for an aggressive shove!

"Hey, Odd, I have an idea… You said Yumi was telekinetic?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because if the door is too tough to just break, then maybe we can pull the lock off of it. I seriously doubt I can do that alone!"

"Yeah, no chance." Yumi sounded slightly encouraged. "Alright, we don't have any better ideas. On the count of three, we go for it. Aelita, can you get us any closer?"

"I can try…" She nudged the controls, maneuvering the ship as close as she dared to the massive tunnel's mouth. "Alright, that's about as close as I can go. Good luck!"

"James, on the count of three. One…"

"Wait! On 'three', or 'three' and then go?"

"You're kidding me, right? On 'three'. One… two… three!" Yumi brought her hands to her head, closed her eyes, and pulled on the lock with every bit of mental energy she could muster, glowing in her cockpit as she heaved away on the stubborn device. It creaked, buffeted, and shook under her intense pull, but stayed solidly put. James concentrated on the sealed tunnel ahead, drew on the flood of virtual energy around the sub, and released it all in a torrent of pure energy straight at the locking mechanism. A shockwave could be seen emanating from the _Skid_, surging toward the Replika's doorstep.

Jeremie was jolted upright, abruptly drawn from his melancholy state by a blaring alert on the screen to his right: XANA had attempted the link to one of the Warriors again, and this signal was far stronger than the first time! He heard a cry, and cycled through the visual displays to see James writhing in pain within the confines of his Navskid's limited space.

"James, sit tight! Aelita, XANA's trying to establish another link to his mind; that's what's causing these fits! I don't know what to do…"

"You can't do anything! If it's a remote connection, we can't tamper with it. How'd he do it?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen anything like it before." Another look at his other screen brought a sense of relief unlike anything Jeremie had felt since Aelita had been saved from dying at the Scyphozoa's tentacled grip. "Whew, what a relief! It looks like it worked, Yumi, the lock's coming off…" He frowned, "…on its own." Monitoring the impending connection between XANA and James, Jeremie let himself breathe again as he watched the link climb to 94% **Complete** before blinking out.

"Hey, Flyboy's coming out of it." Odd sounded overjoyed, a little bit protective of his rookie friend. "Did you do something out there, Jeremie?"

"No, XANA either just stopped trying to complete the link, or he lost the connection. I have no idea." _Something's not right with this… _Thinking about it for a moment, he realized that there was a connection between the painful attacks on Odd's roommate. _The Manta attack, the ambush against Odd, the Creepers, and now this gate… all of the attacks have come during a powerful expenditure of James' 'Force' ability, and they seem to be related to an attempted non-spectral possession. XANA must have found a way to exploit James' programming to establish a link to his mind…_ _But how? _"I think there's a piece missing from the puzzle here, but it doesn't matter for now. Aelita, get inside the Replika before it closes. The amount of energy it took to open that lock was clearly _too much_, and I don't want our new friend to go through another of those attacks until I can figure out what's causing them."

"Roger. Forward thrust…" Ever so gently, she coaxed the _Skid_ into the finally-open maw of the strange sphere.

"Looks like we'll be paying XANA a house call, after all!" Yumi chuckled.

"Yeah, but I didn't have time to get him a housewarming present." Odd chuckled back. "Demonic AIs are surprisingly hard to shop for."

"Odd, I seriously doubt there's _anything_ that this XANA of yours actually likes." James was still breathing heavily and his head still ached, but he'd recovered enough to speak coherently. "In fact, I'm beginning to think that he deeply hates anything he comes into contact with. He's certainly got it in for me, and I just met the guy!" Evidently, he had also recovered enough to be angry at his attacker.

Jeremie responded to his statement. "Even if you are new, that just means that you're more vulnerable, raw, a perfect target. You need to be _extremely_ careful until we can get you up to our level."

"Then let's get this over with and start working on that!" Ulrich sounded impatient.

"Just a few more seconds, Ulrich, and we'll be able to do just that…" He was silent for a few moments. "Done! The barriers are down, you're set for infiltration." The _Skidbladnir _was sailing through a tunnel identical to the one they'd exited into the sea from on Lyoko, narrow and paneled in an impossibly bright white. The surface of the digital 'sea' was visible after a short while, a quickly approaching, brightly lit barrier between the Internet's void and the virtual reality. Aelita slowed slightly, then broke the surface with a mighty crash of the virtual matter around her vessel.

A quick glance around revealed an extremely large open and airy space where, in the distance, a landmass was floating: a copy of one of the Lyoko sectors. James thought it was eerily familiar, given the knowledge that what he was seeing was a corrupt and stolen variation on Aelita's virtual home.

"Y'know, Jeremie, it could take a very long time to train me up to your level, and I'm still not sure I want to bother with this at all. Are you absolutely sure there's nothing you can do to get XANA off my back?"

"Short of turning you in, no. I think you were exactly right when you mentioned the vulture incident. The moment that you interfered in XANA's attack on Odd, he became angry about it and you became a target. To be honest, you've been a Lyoko Warrior for over a month already. You just didn't know it."

"Wow… Einstein, you were right, it's a whole new Lyoko!" Ulrich stared up from his cockpit in stunned awe. "We're underneath the Ice sector, and I can see the Desert off in the distance. Looks about the same as the old one."

"How do you like that, James? It's a whole new world for us to kick XANA's creatures all over, and you're here to see it!"

"I wouldn't get too excited yet, Odd." Yumi squinted toward the sector surface above. It resembled an iceberg, if a very level one, with many protrusions, hills, ice bridges, and even running water to accent the translucent material it was composed of. "It looks like we've already got a welcoming committee waiting for us!" Indeed, sitting on the edge of the sector were two of the enormous white monsters that had attacked Odd with James, as well as a single large black sphere. They seemed to be waiting for the ship to come in range, watching it and waving cannons in their direction, but not firing yet.

"I count two Tarantulas and a Megatank; wow, XANA sent you his big guns! You might want to stay off the surface until I can localize the activated tower."

"Why? I can just yank 'em off the edge…" James started to access the well of energy in the back of his virtual mind, but was stopped by a loud shout over Jeremie's radio link.

"NO! Absolutely not! James, every time you use that power, XANA gets to you. He probably used the Scyphozoa to somehow corrupt your programming for that capability, so at least for now don't use it again unless it's absolutely vital. Understand?"

"Yeah," Odd added, "we probably don't want XANA taking control of you again while you're sitting inside of our ticket home." Aelita slowed the ship's pace to a crawl, safely cruising far below the digital world's surface while Jeremie scanned the four sectors for the active tower that was causing so much trouble.

"Okay, fine, I won't try it. So Ulrich, while we're floating here, how were you able to deflect those Mantas' shots? I mean, I tried doing that before and missed by a mile every time." Ulrich's eyes lit up at the mention of his favorite pastime: martial arts.

"I just put my saber wherever they're aiming. See, the trick is…"

"I've got a fix on the activated tower!" Jeremie cut him off. "It's in the Ice sector, so you've got no choice but to head back toward the monsters. Sorry, guys."

Yumi responded "Don't worry. We can handle them!"

"I know, it's just been a while is all. Assuming XANA hasn't changed anything, just head for that sinkhole we found on the north face and I'll have your vehicles waiting there for you as soon as the _Skid'_s landed."

"On our way." Aelita rolled the ship back to the right, turning back toward the frozen landscape behind them and the dangerous guardians thereof. She pulled up, bringing the vessel above the broken land's surface to reveal an amazing collection of arctic wonders and frosted vistas that would have passed for a beautiful sight in reality. Given that those same icy hills had three evil creatures hidden in them now that were bound and determined to reduce all five of them to bite-size pieces, though, the majesty of it all was somewhat dimmed by the danger. They continued their flight over the landscape, slowing down and dropping lower to the ground until Aelita gave one final retro-rocket fire and brought the _Skidbladnir_ to rest, floating in a sort of hidden harbor formed by ice walls on three sides with a sharp turn blocking sight from the only path in or out. It would help conceal the vessel's location until the Warriors' return.

James took stock of his situation and noticed a slight problem. "Now, how do we get out? Aelita? Odd? Anybody here? Jeremie, where'd everybody go?" The only response was that sudden dissolving feeling he'd had while being teleported into the cockpit, an intense blurring of his vision and, a moment later, the impact of his feet on ice. "OK, that's how. Ah, finally, I can move again! Would it have killed you to put more elbow room in those things?" The others were standing around nearby, stretching their legs as well while watching three objects materializing… no, _virtualizing _in front of them. James stared in disbelief as Jeremie pulled a mono-wheel motorcycle, a circular, gray, flying scooter of sorts, and a largely purple hoverboard out of the nothingness of digital space.

"There are your vehicles. The tower's located due west of the passage exit, about a three-minute flight from where you are."

"Gotcha, Jeremie. James, this is the Overbike," he gestured at the green-and-black motorcycle, "the Overwing," he pointed at the gray flying device, "and the Overboard. We use them for getting around on Lyoko. The bike's usually mine, Yumi and Aelita take the Overwing, and you can probably guess who Jeremie designed the Overboard for." Its purple hull and catlike markings left no question at all in James' mind.

"Odd, think you can clear a little space on your board for James? If you do join the team," Jeremie shifted his attention to James, "I think we're going to need a fourth vehicle down there before too long."

"Well, I can tell you right now, I won't have the balance for a board. Odd, do you mind if I hop on with Ulrich? I'd feel more comfortable seated instead of standing."

"Yeah, no problem. I'm a better pilot solo, anyway!" He flipped onto the board and kicked it on, igniting a burst of orange flame from a pair of rocket motors integrated into the Overboard's angular design. Every movement of the purple craft was accompanied by a sort of electronically-toned hum. Odd zoomed off, closely followed by Yumi and Aelita on the strange circular contraption they called the Overwing. James was dumbfounded at the speeds they were achieving in such short distances. _My compliments to the designer, those things can _move_! Then again, I guess the laws of physics can be bent in a virtual reality… _James scurried over to where Ulrich was already in place on the Overbike, revving the engine to produce a long flame from what he'd thought to be an exhaust.

_This thing's rocket-driven, too?! What are you thinking?!_

_I'm thinking… well, hoping that Ulrich's a good driver._

_Oh, yes, that _fills_ me with confidence… I'm so anxious to get on now, you'd never believe it!_

_You're right, I don't. Shut up, you're in _my_ head, and _I _say 'go'._

"Well, what're you waiting for? Get on!" James complied, gripping the seat beneath him for dear life as Ulrich twisted the handlebars hard… and the bike exploded forward! James didn't have time to blink before the cycle was already through the mouth of the passage tunnel formed by the icy cliffs that surrounded the _Skid_'s landing zone, Ulrich banking hard left to make the sharp turn into a canyon. As if changing gears, the motor gave a short cough and then a second powerful blast as the vehicle came out of the turn, rocketing down a long straightaway to catch up with the other two speed demons. The motor sounded like a constant bass growl, something like what you hear from a grizzly bear whose fish you just stole, but repeated over and over again and mixed with the mechanical sounds of a jet engine as the Overbike raced along the ice-covered track ahead.

"I can see the tower, Jeremie." Aelita pointed it out to Ulrich and James, some fifty yards past the rapidly-approaching mouth of the canyon. Unlike the one Odd had showed him in the forest, this one was glowing red in the corona at its apex.

"Excellent… I don't see the monsters on my screen yet. Wherever they are, they shouldn't be a problem if you hurry!" Just as he finished saying this, an electronic alarm sounded and a new radar window appeared on the supercomputer's monitor. "Uh-oh, scratch that. Those two Tarantulas and the Megatank are incoming from the south, and it looks like three Kankrelats have joined the party." The three monstrous creatures the group had seen from the air now marched up from the canyon exit's left and sat in front of the tower, joined by three smaller things that resembled horribly misshapen, three-legged cockroaches.

James spoke up. "Hey, if I can't use the Force without risking another headache, I won't be any good in a fight. Are there any safe hiding places around here?"

"Yeah, but I doubt you'll want to hide there."

"What do you mean? There are _six_ of those things that want to kill me, I can't fight; of _course_ I want to hide! Where is it?"

"Inside the tower, straight past those things that want to kill you." Ulrich slowed the Overbike to a stop and motioned for James to get off. "Just keep your head down and you'll be fine. Enjoy the show!" He spun up the engine, rotated the cycle in place until it had picked up speed, then loosened his turn and rocketed out toward the tower.

Odd got the first crack at the small army in front of them. By the time James had been dropped off, he was already spinning, flipping, and weaving his purple Overboard through the Tarantulas' unrelenting fire, even while trapped in the mouth of the narrow canyon. A series of bright flashes accompanied a flurry of laser arrows, Odd opening up with both wrists at once to try and hit something amid the chaos. For a second, his harebrained assault seemed to be working: first one, then two of the little cockroaches fell prey to Odd's masterful aim. Then the big black ball cracked open.

On the inside, it appeared to be a semi-organic web of muscle tissue mixed with a circular metal framework, adorned with a massive black Eye of XANA on the foremost point. It turned, focused in on the bobbing, weaving cat-boy just coming out of the canyon, and began charging its main gun in a holographic manner similar to the Krabbes. The charging process said one thing to James, watching from the relative safety of the canyon: _Oh, man, if it takes that long to charge, this is going to _hurt_… _A few moments later, it unleashed a vertical arc of laser energy, composed of solid red light and seemingly unavoidable, and aimed it straight at Odd!

"Odd, look out!" Ulrich swung his bike in front of the red wall of light, pulled his swords and, seemingly without a second thought, attempted to _catch_ the incredibly powerful discharge between his twin weapons. It worked… for a moment, at least. The force of the blast threw both rider and vehicle backwards, knocking Ulrich from the saddle and throwing him to the ground just before the Overbike vanished in a flash of computer-generated parts.

"Laser arrows!" Odd attempted to exact his vengeance on the somehow-sneaky gigantic black ball, (its Eye, which doubled for the arc cannon, was an enormous target) but it slammed shut, Odd's projectiles clattering off the armored hull. "Oh, great, I missed. Open up, you coward…" A massive explosion ripped the orb apart, sending shrapnel everywhere.

"Hey, Odd, you're getting faster. I didn't even see your shot hit the Megatank!" Ulrich dusted himself off and streaked away to try and get behind one of the two Tarantulas.

"Yeah, neither did I…" He looked himself over, wondering how he'd managed to hit a target that vanished before his eyes.

"I've got some bad news for you, sharpshooter. You didn't hit _anything_. I did!" Yumi giggled from where she and the Overwing were floating, retrieving the flying fan that had actually destroyed the Megatank.

"Well, I had it distracted… Ouch!" He fell to the ground, leaving the Overboard to soar away. The last remaining Kankrelat had gotten within a few feet of Odd's back, and was now hammering away at him with all the power in its puny little body. Odd ducked under the next shot and took off running, dropping to all fours as one of the Tarantulas got in on the act. Jeremie began shouting from the computer lab.

"Odd, watch it! All of that just cost you sixty life points, and I'm not sure yet if we can spare you on this one."

"Triangulate!" Ulrich shouted and began running around the Tarantula he'd targeted, streaking himself across three sides of a triangle with the monster at its center. The creature growled, momentarily confused by the three silhouetted Ulrichs at the triangle's corners, then began shooting. He blasted two of the clone Warriors, but was run through its head by the third before it could turn around.

"Alright, guys, just two left… Aelita, go ahead and try to get to the tower. James, now's your chance, too." James waited until Yumi turned to engage the last Tarantula, then crouched as much as he could and ran across the open space between the canyon's exit and the tower. He'd made it about halfway when three white, and then two red energy blasts cut him off. James was tripping over himself to stop, and turned to the left to see Odd still being chased by the little cockroach-thing they called a Kankrelat.

"Flyboy, get going! I'll hold this little creep here for ya, he's just trying to be friendly…" Odd fired again at the oversized bug… and was vaporized himself instead when it jumped to avoid the laser arrow! The Kankrelat turned on its four scrawny legs and faced James, the little red disk of its laser cannon seeming to glint in the simulated sunlight.

"Oh, boy, here we go. Alright, you ugly little bug, let's see what you can do…" James pulled the lightsaber from his left hip and ignited it, bringing it across his torso to cover as much of his center mass as possible. The Kankrelat started jumping around, seemingly testing James' reflexes.

"James, RUN! You told me yourself you'd stand no chance without your Force power, what're you doing?"

"The others are busy…" He grunted and dove to the ground to avoid the first red bolt, then swept his saber at the second and was rewarded with nothing but a sting to his right leg. "…and I'm thinking that this thing isn't all too bright." The 2-foot tall cockroach pushed its advantage, all four legs moving forward to finish the job. That, however, wasn't the smartest thing for XANA's minion to do against an opponent with a short-range weapon.

On the other end of the fight, Yumi was circling the last Tarantula, absorbing all the shots she could with her fans while she waited for an opening in the monster's merciless fire to throw them.

"Yumi, on the next pass, flip over." Jeremie instructed. "Aelita says she has a plan to deal with your little friend!"

"If you say so…" She waited until she was directly in front of the canyon entrance again, then flipped the Overwing upside-down. The Tarantula shifted its aim downward…and was struck by a globule of pink energy from above its inverted target! Like the Creeper before it, the Tarantula died a victim of Aelita's expert aim.

"Yah!" James struck the approaching Kankrelat in its Eye, plastered all over the front of its tan-colored carapace, and was rewarded with a satisfying 'boom' and four squirming metallic legs without an owner. "Hey, Jeremie, _did you see that?!_ I got him!"

"Yeah, nice job, James, now head for the tower." The computer whiz's voice suggested that he wasn't really all that impressed. "If XANA sends reinforcements, I don't want you out in the open."

"Understood. Hey, I'm curious. Did anything show up in that diagnostic you said you were running? If I'm going to be around here for a while, I'd like to have access to _my _special abilities, too."

"Hey, no need to get hasty! I finished the scan before you landed, but I haven't really gone over the results yet."

"Think you could do that now?"

"Sure, just give me a few minutes to analyze that abnormality I found."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." James turned and ran for the tower.

Ulrich snickered as he sheathed his swords. "Looks like we can chalk up another one. XANA's losing his touch, that wasn't even all that hard!"

"Well I, for one, am perfectly okay with easier missions." Yumi folded her fans and landed the Overwing next to him. "Means it'll take less time to get back home."

"Yeah, I could do without the late nights, too." Aelita responded from above James' head. He looked up, and was shocked to see Aelita touching down in front of the tower _on her own wings_. Appearing to be composed of pink light, (appropriate, given the aviatrix) they vanished as Aelita returned to the ground.

"What the… I'll never get used to seeing things like that, I swear it. Aelita, what are you supposed to be, an angel?"

"Oh, my wings? That's just something Jeremie put together for me when we were upgrading our equipment. They really help when the vehicles are out of commission!"

"Heh-heh, yeah, I'm sure… care to show me how this works?" He motioned at the tower. "I don't see a door anywhere…"

"Well, it's sort of _all _door. Watch…" Aelita walked up to the tower's black, vine-draped base, put her hands out in front of her, and just walked right through the wall! It appeared to ripple as she passed through, then returned to its normal solid state.

"You can walk right in, Flyboy." Odd chimed in over Jeremie's radio link, perfectly safe in France after his devirtualization. "Just watch your step inside, there's no bottom to that tower."

"Thanks, Odd. It really helps me to know that I'm walking through a wall into the same room with a bottomless pit."

"Doing my best, good buddy." James chuckled at Odd's stupid wit, then reached out his left hand and pushed on the tower wall. Just like Aelita's, it passed right through the surface, leaving a white ripple on the wall in its wake. He took a deep breath, then stepped through the wall and onto some kind of a narrow, brightly lit platform. The tower's interior was reminiscent of Sector 5, a layer of datascreens and flowing binary code all over the walls surrounding two disk-shaped floors, one high above the other. The triple roundel James had already come to associate with XANA covered the floor.

"Where'd Aelita go?" The girl in pink was indeed nowhere to be seen.

"She's on the platform above you, deactivating the tower… wait… Aelita, is your code working?"

"No, it's not, Jeremie. You were right… I've got no way to shut down the tower. What do we do now?" There was no answer, no response of any kind. "Jeremie? Are you still there? Jeremie, snap out of it!"

"I'm right here, Aelita, relax! Just give me a second… I might have found something." There was absolute silence from the laboratory, then muffled speech from both Jeremie and Odd.

"And you're sure? No way this could be a computer error, a XANA trick?"

"Yeah, no doubt at all. I'm sure you realize how serious this is."

"Yeah, James isn't going to like it one bit. What's worse, I'm gonna be rooming with him! Imagine his _temper_ by the time we get back… I'll need Kiwi to play bodyguard!"

"Hey, Odd, you _do_ know I can hear you, right? What exactly am I going to have a 'bad temper' about… I mean, other than all this stuff that isn't necessarilyyour fault, I can ignore that for now."

"Jeremie, what are we going to do?" Aelita was obviously very worried, and with good reason. "If I can't shut the tower down, we'll need to figure out some other way to prevent XANA from doing anything in the real world."

"Well, you're sort of right… but also sort of wrong." 'Einstein' was back in his seat, speaking into the mike again. "_You_ can't deactivate these new towers… but I think we have someone else who can."

"What?" Ulrich sounded extremely confused.

"Jeremie, what are you talking about?" So did Yumi. "No one else has a Key to Lyoko besides Aelita, how would any of _us_ deactivate the tower?"

"That's where the 'temper' thing comes in. James, when the Scyphozoa attacked you, it tried to plant codes in your mind to allow XANA to control you. Odd pulled you out of its tentacles in time to stop the possession, but there was a slight… bug."

"_What do you mean, 'bug'?!_ Einstein, if I'm unstable for some reason, I'm gonna…"

"No, no, nothing that serious. When Odd pulled you loose, the Scyphozoa didn't have time to terminate the connection with your virtual avatar. The files it attempted to download were incomplete, and so now they're corrupted, inert and integrated into your DNA structure."

"Okay, so there's a bunch of corrupt computer software in my head. So far, nothing too serious."

"Well, sort of. The corrupt files include programs that would have given you access (under XANA's control) to XANA's power reserves and enhanced virtual abilities, the same as William Dunbar. Those enhancements still apply to your Force ability, even though the files are incomplete, and that's why XANA gets into your head every time you use it. A link is established when you access his power reserves to augment your own capabilities."

"That explains the attacks… but what's this now about the tower?"

"Well, if my hypothesis is right, another of the programs XANA would have tried to install would be one to give you access to his new virtual world; to allow you to get in, out, and manipulate towers' links to the real world at his whim. Now you're not under his control, but those codes just might still be there. I think XANA _gave_ you a copy of _his_ Key!" Jeremie's statement sent shockwaves through his friends, and James was simply terrified. A cold certainty formed in his mind, a realization that he had no way of escaping.

"Jeremie, if that's true, if I happen to have a copy of XANA's new Key stuck in my head somewhere, then I'm not going to be able to leave this alone. You'll need me to deactivate any of the towers he activates on this new virtual world, and XANA won't even leave me alone on Earth with something that important to his plans. Jeremie, I could be_ killed_ for this if you're right!"

"Well, Flyboy, there's only one way to find out." Odd told his roommate. "Get onto the platform up there and try to deactivate the tower."

James choked back some choice words for Jeremie Belpois, then managed a resigned groan. "Alright, fine, how do I get up there?"

Aelita responded. "Well, if XANA's access codes _are_ tied to your Force power, then you should be able to just 'poke' the tower with that a little bit, and it'll do the rest."

"Roger that. Here goes…" James gave the tower's apex a slight mental nudge, and then gave a good yelp himself as he was lifted off of the floor he'd been standing on. For a person who wanted to build aircraft, he'd never been very comfortable with heights.

Outside, Yumi and Ulrich were getting anxious. The sounds of cracking glacial ice and running water were loudly resonating all around them, giving both the false impression that something was out there and putting them both on their guard. At the same time, they were trying to understand how what Jeremie was saying would affect future missions.

"Ulrich, if James actually does have XANA's codes, you know we're going to have a brand-new problem on our hands."

"Yeah, XANA won't give up anything that important without a fight, and now we'll have a rookie to blunder through it, too." He shook his head and crossed his arms. "This isn't gonna be easy."

"Wah… okay, I think I'm set up here." James touched back down and staggered away from the edge of a very small platform in the tower's peak. He looked over the edge and instantly regretted it. "Sheesh, is th… this thing tall enough?" He moved further inward and averted his gaze to the pink-haired girl watching him rather curiously.

"Problem?"

"Well, I just don't like heights, that's all. What's next?"

"You just put your hand on that pad." She indicated a transparent interface screen just like the one Odd had been working on in Sector 5. "It scans your virtual DNA and, if XANA's Key is anywhere in there, it should give you access to the tower's controls."

"Personally, I'm just gonna hope Jeremie's dead wrong. Here goes nothing…" James set his left hand on the datascreen and watched in fascination as a square shape around it blinked into translucence, a white bar scanned his hand top to bottom, and then blinked away with a silhouette still present on the screen. A second later, large text typed itself onto the clear surface: **James**. He looked uncertainly at Aelita, who just motioned back at the screen. His name vanished, replaced by a request for a code.

"Okay, Jeremie, you were right, it recognizes me… now what?" _Crap…_

"You type the name of the virtual environment, 'Lyoko', into the space there to deactivate the tower." Jeremie added as an afterthought, "It's spelled L-Y-O-K-O."

"I don't see a keyboard anywhere around here, Einstein."

Aelita set him straight. "Manipulate the screen the same way you did the tower." James experimented, accessing the mental energy again (some of it apparently XANA's) and imagining the letters typing on the screen. One by one, they certainly did: **Code: Lyoko**. The screen blinked acceptance of the code, then the entire tower reacted! Many of the datapanels covering the walls began rocketing downward, past the floor of the lower level, no longer needed as the tower shut down. Outside, the aurora surrounding the tower's tip turned from red to a flat white, indicating success to Ulrich and Yumi.

Ulrich turned to the virtual sky and stated rather bluntly, "It looks like your friend just became a whole lot more important, Odd."

"Yeah, but he's not one to let it go to his head. Are you, Flyboy?"

"Odd, unless I've missed something, this whole mission is about something that _already_ went to my head. I'm stuck now being hunted by the very angry computerized equivalent of a _demon_ that wants something back it left _inside of my mind_. That means I am now in the perpetual crosshairs of a being capable of both kidnapping and murder! Did you somehow overlook that little detail?!"

"Oh, right. Sorry." James would've bet anything that Odd was making a very sheepish face right at that moment.

"James, there's nothing to worry about. Aelita faced the same threat for years, and we _always_ kept her safe. We won't let anything happen to you, either."

James put his hands on his hips and responded. "Jeremie, need I remind you that, according to your story, you actually _failed_ to keep Aelita safe? If Franz Hopper hadn't intervened, she'd have died, you said that! What's to prevent XANA from making off with me, too?"

"You're just going to have to trust us, James." Ulrich was talking from outside the tower, patched through Jeremie's link. "We _are_ three years older now, and a lot stronger. We'll give XANA all he can handle, don't you worry." James still had his doubts, but he decided to keep them to himself for the moment. _I'd better not upset the only people in the world who can protect me from this thing…_

"Alright, so the tower's deactivated. We're back in business!" Yumi sounded excited over that bit of news. "Jeremie, are we heading back to Lyoko?"

"Yes, everyone except James. You'll need to be devirtualized from _that_ Lyoko to rematerialize in Texas."

"Then what's going to happen with Odd? He's there in France with you, right?"

"Yes, I'll need to send him back through later. It's been a long, tough day, though, so I think we should all just get a good night's rest wherever we are and start trying to solve this sticky little problem tomorrow." James followed Aelita back to the ground and out of the tower. They met up with Ulrich and Yumi, still sitting by the Overwing waiting for something to do.

"Hey, Odd," Ulrich said, "any ideas on what to call this place? It might get a little confusing talking about two different Lyokos."

The transmission from the lab was silent for a minute as Odd scratched his head, then he took Jeremie's microphone and answered. "There's only one name to choose for XANA's new home: Xanadu. XANA-du. Get it?"

"Odd, that's a terrible joke!" Aelita was shaking her head over Odd's suggestion, but seemed to agree with it. "All in favor?" Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie all raised their hands. James found himself doing the same.

1 Hour Later…

"Physical fitness has never been my strong suit, guys." James stared out at the screen from underneath his BDU cap, taking comfort in its partial concealment. Everyone had been devirtualized, and they were now discussing their next move via webcams. "If XANA's spectres and clones are as super-powerful as you say they are, that's going to have to change. Anybody disagree?"

Yumi answered him. "No, you're right. Every time XANA's gotten to Jeremie, he's gotten badly beat-up and we've lost our only source of help. If you're anything like he is, a good workout routine is in order!"

"At the same time, we need to find out exactly how much of your power you can use without risking the link to XANA." Jeremie made a good point.

"Right, Jeremie. I could be capable of a lot of stuff with XANA's access codes, but I guess you need to know what."

"I could probably be some help there." Aelita moved toward the webcam at their end. "Between all of us, I'm the closest one to XANA, and I can try to show you what he can do." She made good sense, there was no one better… _or is there?_

"What about William Dunbar? If he spent several months under XANA's control, he'd know everything about how to use his power."

"NO!" was the unanimous reply. Jeremie explained, "I already told you, James, we're not allowing William to return to Lyoko. His history with XANA is the _reason_ we don't want him coming back… and anyway, he can't remember a thing."

"Yeah, the first thing he said when he got back out of the scanner was 'I did pretty good, huh?'" Odd was dead serious, prompting a stunned 'what?' from James. "He had no idea we'd spent the last several months thinking of ways to cut him into tiny pieces."

"Aelita can teach you everything you need to know about XANA's power, we'll think of something for a workout, you're the best swordsman, Ulrich, so you're a given instructor… anything else, James?"

"Yeah, how can we stay in touch? If I get attacked here or you need my help there, we need to be able to talk pretty quickly."

"We all have cell phones, so that's what we can use until I can work up something less conspicuous. I'll send you the numbers now…" Jeremie turned downward, typed a few commands into the supercomputer, and a window popped up on James' end with four number sequences on it. "You already have Odd's number, so that's me, Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita. If anything happens, text 'SOS XANA' to any of us and we should be at the factory within ten minutes."

Alright, then. I'll talk to y'all tomorrow… oh, Odd, I almost forgot! Where can I find Kiwi? He wasn't here when I got back."

"I told him to go home before I went to find you. He'll be back at the dorm already."

"He's that smart, huh?"

"Yes, he is." Odd clearly took great pride in his dog's intelligence. "Just watch the potato chips I have stashed in my drawers, he gets really bad gas if he eats them."

James went deadpan again. "Thanks, Odd. That's really something I wanted to know…"

"See you in the morning, Flyboy." James cut the connection, thinking that the last thing he'd be able to do tonight was sleep.

***

And that was it. I had no choice: XANA had planted his new Key in my DNA, planning to use it himself, but lost his chance (and his Key) when Odd rescued me. The next day would be my first as a trainee in the ongoing digital power struggle, and my last as a simple college student. Jeremie and the others were about to become my best friends, XANA my worst nightmare, and everyone else a bystander to be looked out for. The adventures of the Lyoko Warriors on Xanadu had begun.

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**That's a first... I stuck the journal entry at the end this time... I really can't figure why. For those of you who know about that sort of thing, I _did_ put the Xanadu thing in here as a throwback to 'Garage Kids', and I just might fit other elements of that pilot episode into later chapters. Well, basically, XANA now has his reason to continue attacking the Lyoko Warriors, the original cast now has a reason to accept the new kid, and the new kid now has motivation to put himself through the coming training sessions, all from one transitional chapter. I feel accomplished... Oh, god, I love the smell of Malamute in the morning! Anyway, review and please let me know how I did here. I have a feeling that, no matter what I can see as the author, this part of the story will be messy...**


	9. Russian Roulette, Part 1

**5/14/2010: Ignore what it says below for now. Until this fall, 'Ties That Bind' is actually on an updating hiatus. Sorry, folks, but you'll have to wait till then to get the second half of this story arc!**

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Boy howdy, it's good to be back! After three months of trying to get this done through the worst case of writer's block I've ever had, I'm extremely pleased to announce that "The Ties That Bind" is an active project once more! It's kinda sad, I actaully had to reconstruct the documents that I had on the website because the originals had expired. All's good now, though. Welcome to Chapter 8, everyone, the first part of this story I've written to follow the original pattern of the show. We're out of the exposition now, ladies and gentlemen. Prepare for some action.

**I'd also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Masterofminds' extremely helpful contributions to this new chapter. If not for her help, I'd probably still be scratching my head halfway through this thing! Thanks a ton for your help, Mindmaster, and I hope you like the story.**

**With that out of the way, it is time: enjoy, and please review for me!**

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Autosave: Journal of James Pierce  
20:59:25  
5/22/2015  
Entry #1663-8  
"Russian Roulette, Part 1"

October 31st: Halloween. I have to be straight with you, Lincoln, it's never been my favorite holiday. I guess it just seems like a bad idea to devote an entire day to all things strange, dark, and abnormal! Yes, I realize that I am myself abnormal, but let me elaborate.

The gloom of that night every year is filled with hundreds of masked people hunting for sugar that will just continue to drive them deeper into madness until they all vanish around 10:00, leaving little or no evidence that they were ever there in the first place. Needless to say, I have a lot of very bad memories from years past that I'd rather not talk about, but the 31st of 2010 was an especially bad day I'll never forget… or want to relive. My first day 'on the job', as it were, was a second colossal failure on my part that nearly cost a life and actually _did_ blow our secret to kingdom come! It all started around 3:00 that day when my phone rang…

On a highway in western Texas, there was a white Toyota Corolla traveling eastward toward San Antonio. It had just two occupants, both of whom were alternating between cracking jokes, quoting movies, and calling politicians morons to the tune of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. James Pierce and his father, Reigh, had a lot in common, but this exercise of their senses of humor was, without exception, their favorite pastime. Suddenly, a long line of humorous Presidential quotes was cut short by the chorus of Dragostea Din Tei blaring over James' cell phone speaker. He answered it while his dad turned down the radio.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." It was Odd. James had thought the energetic, slightly off-beat song would fit his hyperactive roommate perfectly as a ringtone. "Jeremie's got a mission for us, can you get back to the lab?"

"Well, not really…"

"Who is it?" James' father asked him, his deep voice cutting through Odd's next statement. He was the spitting image of a matured James, his dark hair cut short and paired with a trim goatee that framed a confident, caring, and now curious grin. He was very fit, a testament to his consistent running and workout habits as well as his longtime career in law enforcement. Piercing blue eyes (wearing contacts to match James' glasses) turned to look at James as he answered.

"It's my roommate, Odd. The guy with the weird haircut?" Reigh nodded as he recalled meeting Odd after the vulture incident. James turned back to the phone conversation. "What'd you say?"

"I said 'what do you mean, not really?' We could use your help, and you need the practice on Lyoko."

"Odd, I'm not exactly back at maximum yet after yesterday's fiasco! Anyway, today's Halloween."

"So? It's not like that makes today a day of rest!"

"No, no, it's nothing like that. The problem is that I'm actually two-and-a-half hours outside of Odessa right now." James looked out the window of his parents' car and quickly read a sign that said 'Welcome to Kerrville!' _Scratch that, more like three hours. _"I told you last week, I volunteered to help out at my church's Fall Festival tonight. I'll be in San Antonio with my family all day and be back in the morning."

"So we'll have to do this without you?"

"Is it anything serious?" He chose his next words carefully, watching his dad in the driver's seat and trying to see how closely he was listening. Reigh Pierce happened to be a third-generation police officer with twenty years of experience, so he didn't miss much! "Do you need the Key?" _With any luck, Dad'll think I'm talking about the dorm room… geez, I hate that. I've never kept a secret from him in my life and now, all of a sudden, I'm an expert liar! How does _that_ work?_

Odd took a moment to ask Jeremie (apparently, right beside him) and responded. "No. Jeremie spent last night looking for a few of XANA's Replikas, and we're just gonna go destroy them. As long as they're replicas of Lyoko, Aelita will be able to get us in."

"You really weren't kidding about Einstein's sleeping habits, were you? Alright, as long as I'm not needed, I guess I'll see ya in the morning."

"Fair enough. I'll say 'hi' to XANA for you!"

"Thanks, and I'll see what loot I can snatch for you and Kiwi. Hasta luego, amigo." James hung up, sticking the phone back in his pocket.

"Who're 'Einstein' and 'Kiwi'?" Reigh Pierce asked his son. "Friends of yours?"

"Friends of Odd's. They were going to go do something today, and Odd wanted to know if I was coming. Obviously, I can't really make it."

"We can turn around if it's something important." His dad was always cool like that: he'd go the extra mile for any of his kids to have a good time. "I don't want you missing out, and I'm sure the church has more than enough help for tonight."

"No, we're almost home already. It'd be a waste of time for you to have to drive another six hours just to get me back there. Thanks, though."

"Okay, just thought I'd offer." He turned his eyes back to the road, then commented, "Those are some pretty interesting names your friends have. Is 'Odd' a nickname, or... like, is that really his name?"

James chuckled. He'd thought the same thing that first morning on the football field. "Believe it or not, it really is his name. He's from Europe, so that probably explains it."

"Ah, okay. Yeah, foreign languages always sound funny…" That was a simple lead-on to another family specialty: badly-stereotyped but well-imitated accents. _Oh, this is just too easy… let's see, Russian? Mexican? French… no, I can't use the French one anymore. I'd never be able to look at Jeremie the same way… Heh heh, the Indian's always popular…_

Odd hung up his phone and turned to Jeremie. "He says he can't make it. He's got something to do with his family in San Antonio, so he's not even close enough to the lab to help us out."

"I wish he'd have told me about it yesterday." The computer whiz turned in his seat and lowered his voice into the 'this-complicates-matters' range. "XANA will act as quickly as possible to get his Key back, and with James in San Antonio, he's vulnerable."

Ulrich piped up from the scanner room below. "That's easy, we're about to destroy the Replika you found in San Antonio. With that gone, it's 'problem solved', right?"

"Actually, that one in Texas is the last one we'll be getting to. First, there are Replikas I found near Gisborne, Heidelberg, and Tokyo that are all closer on the Network."

That got Odd thinking. "Gisborne?" The relatively large town in New Zealand was his parents' home. "_My_ folks?"

"Exactly! If XANA's angry about losing his codes to us, I don't want to run the risk of him taking it out on your parents, so I spent last night searching all known IP addresses in the immediate areas of those cities for the quantum code residuals that indicate the presence of XANA's Replikas. It was a time-consuming process, but I managed to isolate a few of them and now we're going to attempt to destroy all four of them."

"Four Replikas in one day, Jeremie? Don't you think that's a little _much_?" Yumi crossed her arms, obviously overwhelmed by that prospect. The group had never taken down more than one at a time, so she might have had a valid point.

"As furious as XANA will definitely be right now, I don't think we can afford to take any chances. In fact, I'm surprised I didn't think of this _long_ ago! Would you prefer another materialized Krabbe knocking on your grandparents' door? Your father didn't fare too well the last time, if memory serves."

"Alright, you've made your point." Yumi still had nightmares about _that_ incident. "Are we going?"

"Yep, whenever you're ready." Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita stepped into their respective scanners and Odd went for the elevator to do the same. Jeremie began the procedure, familiar enough even after three years to run it in his sleep.

"Transfer Ulrich, transfer Yumi, transfer Aelita… scanner Ulrich, scanner Yumi, scanner Aelita… virtualization." The monitor indicated three successful transfers, then pulled up the holosphere mapping system unique to Sector 5 to confirm their arrival. "Okay, Odd, your turn."

On Lyoko, the others were waiting for their landing zone to stop spinning. They were located at the center of the spherical core in a chamber they called the 'arena', made up of a spherical soft-blue wall and a circular floor marked with a massive variation on XANA's Eye. Either the floor or the rest of the sector (from their vantage point, it was impossible to tell which) was spinning around the horizontal axis, effectively cutting off travel beyond the chamber's wall until it stopped moving. Odd slowly pixelized above the others, landing in a squat as the rotating wall began to slow.

Yumi turned around and said, "Hey, Odd, something wrong?" The purple cat-boy was clutching his stomach as he fell to his knees.

"Ugh, my breakfast wants to say 'hello'. That doesn't normally happen unless we use the transporter…"

"Well, what did you have for breakfast?" asked Ulrich.

"Bacon, hash browns, two servings of eggs, half a dozen pancakes, a pint of maple syrup. Same as always…"

"Odd, you've been away from Kadic too long." Aelita broke the news to him as delicately as she could. "Delmas changed food suppliers, so the syrup's no good anymore."

"The one thing I love most in the world has turned on me!" He truly sounded heartbroken, even if it was mostly for show. "Dear sweet _food_, how could you?"

"Alright, Odd, knock it off and head for the _Skid_. It doesn't look like anything's shifted since yesterday, so the path should be relatively simple."

"I'll scout ahead." Ulrich ran, using his 'super-sprint' ability to gain distance so that he could keep the path clear for the others. He came to a large chamber, the converging point for many of the smaller hallways, and stopped to let them catch up. The room was like any other in the digital world's stringent core sector: a seemingly random collection of perfectly flat matte-blue surfaces with square corners and some form of an ambient light source. Several things were still missing, though, that made Ulrich nervous by their absence: Creepers. If XANA knew they were on Lyoko, the place would be _swarming_ with them.

"Jeremie, do you see any monsters on your screen?"

"No, nothing. It seems we've managed to slip in under XANA's nose for once."

"Maybe he's just calling it quits. I would, too, if Odd the Magnificent was returning to destroy me!" Odd and the girls ran into the room, stopping with Ulrich near its center.

Yumi decided to knock her overconfident friend down a notch. "Odd, you took more beatings from XANA than any of us! I don't think he's very intimidated by you."

"That's not true!" Odd's pride demanded a quick rebuttal. "What about the biker gang, the killer robot, that day with the plants, the swimming pool attack?" He was counting off on his fingers, (all four of them…) but then moved his hands to his hips for defiant emphasis. "You draw XANA attacks like a fridge magnet!"

Yumi simply came back with an accusation of her own. "True, but then there's the polymorphic clone of Jeremie. He knocked you out without even trying… in fact, all three clones of Jeremie did. XANA's never beaten me unconscious, not _even_ on that day with all the plants!"

"From that room you're in, head for the third passage on your left, it leads to the elevator platform." Jeremie went silent, then added, "And Yumi, you're forgetting the incidents with the birds and all the clones of Kiwi-2. They put you out cold." A muffled chuckle could be heard emanating from his headset.

Yumi blushed for a second, watching Odd's smug grin grow, then just blurted out, "Okay, fine. XANA's taken me off-guard a couple of times, big deal. Anyway, Odd, I thought we discussed the swimming pool attack _last year_, and you said you'd never bring it up again!" Odd effectively didn't hear anything after 'big deal'.

"Ha! Once again, I come out on top! Not too surprising, but it gets boring always being the best…" He sighed as dramatically as he could in Yumi's direction while running to keep up with Aelita and Ulrich. She gave chase, growling something vague about his scrawny neck as she streaked past the others.

"Ah, things never change, do they?" Aelita giggled as Yumi tackled Odd, and Ulrich returned a chuckle when he got back up and started running again.

"Jeremie, could you send me my Overboard? I'm in grave danger here!"

Ulrich continued to watch the unfolding chase (unconsciously, he was sure they choreographed the entire thing) and answered his pink-haired friend. "C'mon, Aelita, Odd and Yumi can't start getting along. It would throw off the whole team!" Their muffled snickering gave way to uproarious laughter at the arguing duo's expense.

"Not the whole team, Ulrich." said Jeremie, barely able to recover himself. "_I_ stay out of the line of fire!"

5:03 PM Odessa, 11:03 PM Paris

While the Replika hunt was gaining momentum, (or losing it, depending on who you asked) James Pierce was busy getting things ready for the night's festivities at the Bulverde Central Bible Church. All across the building's expansive parking lot, carnival-style games and a few rides were being set up by a small army of volunteers at a pace that would just barely have the festival ready for the 6:00 gate-opening. James was putting up a large painted plywood board that would serve as a water-balloon target (complete with holes for the heads of any of the church staff with a good enough sense of humor) when he heard a voice behind him.

"James, duck!" James dropped to a kneeling position and whistled in a relieved tone as a massive water balloon soared through the space his torso had just been in, thoroughly soaking the ground past the target. He turned around to see his little brother standing near the table that would hold the water balloons for the game, tossing another one between his hands.

"Sam, please don't do it. I'm not in the best of moods after something Odd did yesterday, and besides, it'll be freezing tonight!" _Also, this outfit seems to get really stiff when it's wet. Never should have starched it… _He was wearing his old uniform, sans Civil Air Patrol patches, as his costume for the night. His usual BDU cap was joined by the jungle-camo pants and jacket of an Air Force-issue combat uniform, with a pair of slightly-worn black boots rounding out the package.

"Oh, come on. It was just too easy!" Samuel Pierce was the family athlete, usually a star center in middle school basketball but equally adept as a Little League pitcher. He would have had absolutely no trouble putting the balloon squarely on-target, except for his friend Matthew Clancy's last-second shouting.

"Right. Thanks for the warning, Matt. I owe you one!"

"Sure, no problem." Sam's friend was exceedingly short for his age, but more than made up for it with athleticism. He had black crew-cut hair, brown eyes, a round face, and a Robin Hood outfit complete with an appropriately-sized bow and smashing green tights. He looked for all the world like a literal interpretation of Little John. "Hey, Sam, check this out: the wall's all set up, and there's a guy over there saying he'll let us on it for a little bit before the party starts!"

"Yeah, let's do it. I'll get you next time, bro!" He turned and ran, dropping the water balloon back in the plastic bin it had come from without bursting it.

"You just try it, Sam. You just try…" James went back to his work, keeping an eye open for Sam's Capone-gangster costume and an ear out for flying rubber. _If there's one thing I hate about him, it's that, somehow or other, he _will_ get me next time! Now, where's that hammer I was using…_ He looked around for the tool, but found nothing. Craning his neck over his shoulder, he shouted toward the next booth, "Mom, do you know where the hammer went?" His mother, Shirley Pierce, had volunteered to handle what was usually the evening's biggest draw: the obstacle course. Forty yards (twenty yards run down-and-back) of inflatable, irritatingly-hard-to-grip canvas challenge attracted anyone with an ego or a competitive streak… and this was south Texas!

"Yes, I've got it here with me. Give me a few minutes to finish up real quick, and it's all yours." She went back to knocking in the stakes holding the massive balloon-like object to the ground against the night's high winds. Her brownish-blonde hair, the same shade as both of her sons', framed determined, caring blue eyes and a mouth curled at the corners with exertion. She'd briefly been a cheerleader in high school, and had stayed active ever since, but pile-driving gets to anyone after the first few stakes.

"Alright, just let me know." He walked back over to the balloon table and began tossing one between his hands, oblivious to the church building's security camera high above… the one that was following his every move.

In the digital sea, the _Skid_ was well on the way to the first target on Jeremie's short list: a Lyoko Replika based on a computer in Heidelberg, Germany, Ulrich's hometown near the French border. Thus far in the mission, XANA had been strangely quiet, almost like he'd missed seeing them somehow, and Ulrich was getting to the point of 'extremely unnerved' by that prospect.

"Jeremie, are you sure you don't see anything out there? XANA's never left us alone this long on the network!"

"Once more, nothing to report. Aelita, do you see anything on the _Skid'_s sonar?"

"No, nothing. I'm starting to agree with Ulrich, there's something not right here…" Aelita scanned the surrounding towers and hubs of the Internet, certain that XANA was hiding _something_ in those identically-shaped masses.

"Do you think it could be a trap?" Yumi asked Jeremie. "One of XANA's tricks?"

"It's either that or he hasn't spotted you at all yet, and he's not usually one to miss seeing his worst enemies pass through. Either way, we'll know for sure after the first Replika. There's absolutely no chance he'll miss us destroying one, and if he still doesn't attack, we can be sure he's doing something underhanded."

"Looks like we'll find out pretty soon, then. The Replika's in sight, and I'm starting the approach." Aelita banked hard left, angling her ship away toward the massive gray sphere about two miles away. The ship's propeller stopped rotating as she drew close, allowing the _Skid_ to coast to a stop in front of the Replika's gateway. It was identical to the one from the day before, a cone of triangular plates the same flat blue color as the rest of the digital sea's landscape folded over the entrance and sealed with a large and heavy arm bearing XANA's Eye. Unlike the day before, though, this one was easy prey.

Aelita placed her hand onto the submarine's scanning device, which automatically deciphered the Key to Lyoko in her DNA and transmitted it by tightbeam laser to the lock. A very narrow blue stream of data indicated the transfer, followed immediately by a loud _thunk_ in the water as the massive door began to open. Now it was Jeremie's turn.

He cracked his knuckles, as though to show off for a nonexistent audience, and then opened a new window on his screen. Aelita's Key gave him access to the Replika's programming functions, but he still had to crack an electronic passcode to be able to open the door. He'd written a program years ago to crack the code, (with Aelita's level of access, it was hardly a challenge) and ran it now to bring down the defenses in a matter of seconds.

"There you go." The long arm of the locking device dropped downward, out of sight, and the cone over the entrance folded out like the unnaturally symmetrical petals of a gargantuan flower. Aelita nudged forward on her throttle, pushing the _Skidbladnir_ into the maw of XANA's copy of her onetime home.

"Hey Jeremie, we're in. Now what?" Odd said as Aelita broke the surface of the digital sea, bringing a broken, fog- shrouded terrain of cliffs and stone into view. Tall hills, long rock bridges, and a handful of even more complex formations made up the layout of this virtual realm.

"It's a copy of the Mountain Sector. Great, we'll have Hornets to deal with…" Ulrich groaned. Being armed with such short-range weapons as his sabers, he was always at a disadvantage to XANA's mimic of the mosquito: huge, eight-winged, wasp-shaped insects with laser 'stingers' in their abdomen and a rather unattractive proboscis that the Warriors called Hornets. Being able to fly, they had an even greater advantage over the narrow, uneven ground and foggy skies of the Mountain Sector, and XANA had always been quick to capitalize on that fact.

"Just get to a tower as quickly as you can and you might not have to worry about the Hornets. XANA is still being quiet; I can't find an activated tower on any of the Replikas just yet."

"So, who's going to be teleported?" asked Aelita. The group of four would be split in two once they were on the ground; the Replika could only be destroyed by disabling the computer generating it, so two of them would need to be sent directly to the computer's location on Earth. Jeremie would accomplish this, without a scanner in the area, by converting their virtual avatars into energy projections, similar to XANA's ghosts, and dropping them on Earth. They called the process 'teleportation', as it wasn't a true devirtualization, but it meant they could work from Lyoko in places they couldn't directly reach in the real world. Aelita continued, "We can't send you, Ulrich, or someone might recognize you in Germany."

"Better and better… To be honest with you, I'd almost prefer to let this one go. A run-in with a few Kankrelats would do my Dad some good…" The most aggressive member of the group was now stuck on ground where he was automatically on the defensive, leaving him very uncomfortable. _Not to mention my problem with vertigo in a place with so many cliffs…_

"I'm staying here with him. It's been a while since I've had some aerial target practice!" Odd chuckled, knowing with pride that he was the one Warrior best equipped for the mountains. He and his cat-claws could climb all over them, his Overboard was maneuverable enough to go anywhere, (even inside of the stone mazes that dotted the landscape) and his armament of laser arrows meant that his reach was infinite across the sector's vast open spaces.

"Okay, it'll be a night on the town for you, then, ladies. Keep in mind, you'll need to avoid drawing attention this time because there will be other people in the area. Low profile, understand?"

"We understand, low profile." Yumi rolled her eyes. _No, Jeremie, we're going to go waltzing straight down Main Street dressed like Power Rangers. 'Hi, could you show me and my pink friend here where we can find a supercomputer?' _"Hey, if we only had the time for sightseeing, huh, Aelita?" She infused her voice with plenty of sarcasm for Jeremie's sake.

"Ha ha, yeah, it's a real shame!" Aelita pulled the _Skid _above ground level, exposing the somewhat-depressing loneliness of the rough, rocky terrain. A tower loomed up ahead of them, and Aelita moved toward it. She stopped the mighty vessel right next to the tower, then pressed a series of buttons in the cockpit to establish a link to it. Moments later, _Skidbladnir_ was docked to the tower by a haze of green energy, Jeremie's Lyokoan calling card.

"Prepare for teleportation." Jeremie brought the old program, still tucked into his personal notes on the supercomputer, out of compressed storage and activated it. From a display of the _Skidbladnir'_s hull, he selected Yumi's Navskid and Aelita's cockpit, breezed through the initiation code, then simply gave the supercomputer the appropriate vocal commands. "Teleportation Aelita, teleportation Yumi." On Lyoko, the two girls faded out of visibility, and then out of existence.

On a quiet back road in downtown Heidelberg, a light rain was coming down on a German couple walking home under their umbrella at 10:30 on Halloween night. They'd just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary (A fine night for it, don't you agree?) with a late night composed of an excellent dinner, slow dancing, and not a few sips of fine alcohol. Thunder rolled and lightning arced in the skies above while the 57-year-old man under the umbrella was belting out an off-key serenade that echoed down the otherwise empty block.

He stopped only for a moment when a pair of bright orbs appeared in the air above the narrow street, little more than an alleyway in the outer reaches of the city. They grew to a rather large size and an intense brightness, then gave a single burst of white light before dissipating to reveal two girls dropping to Earth in practiced crouches. The bodysuits they were wearing made them appear somehow otherworldly, almost so well-put-together they shouldn't exist in reality. They stood up, the one on the left covered head-to-toe in pink and the other one appearing to be of Japanese descent, and assessed their surroundings.

Catching sight of the man and his wife, they froze for a second, then started talking between themselves rather loudly in French. They seemed stuck to the ground under their feet, uncertain of how to proceed, until the pink one just grinned nervously and waved. The German man waved back, happily thinking he was hallucinating after the night's festivities, and returned to his song. His wife shrugged to the two strangers, joined him, and they walked around the corner down the block, blissfully unaware that they'd seen anything of importance.

Jeremie was scratching his headset-clad cranium. For the life of him, he couldn't understand this one. "You're telling me they saw two people appear out of thin air, then just started singing and left?"

"That's right, Jeremie. I think it was some kind of a folk song…" Aelita sounded every bit as confused as Jeremie was.

"No questions, no surprised remarks? Nothing?"

"No, but he did wave at me. Judging by the way they were walking, I think they might have been drunk."

"Oh, that explains it!" Odd laughed and would have continued if Ulrich didn't cut him off first.

"Odd, if you say anything about 'Germans and their beer', I'll gut you like a fish." It wasn't worded as a joke or sarcasm, just a level-toned straight fact. Ulrich didn't even budge from his position leaning against a sheer cliff face, eyes closed and his hands tucked behind his head. Odd noted that they were just inches from his swords.

"Ulrich, you really need to learn to relax; laugh at yourself a little bit! Alcohol and Germans are just funny together. Take what happened at the graduation party, for example. That was hilarious!"

Ulrich practically jumped off the wall, his cheeks (and eyes) turning as red as Lyoko's graphics would allow. "Hey, how was I supposed to know Nikolas and Herve spiked the punch? Between that and the dinner with too much salt, it just wasn't fair!"

"Y'know, Ulrich, it _was_ pretty funny from where I was sitting." Aelita paused to contain herself, then continued: "I don't think Mr. Delmas will forget _that_ dance anytime soon…"

"Jim spent a week teaching me the tango, what can I say?"

"William got a pretty good recording of the whole thing on his phone…" Jeremie interrupted Yumi's jibe, leaving Ulrich with something to think about when he went back to school with William Dunbar.

"Not that this isn't interesting, but if they're gone, ladies, then we should get back on-task. Where exactly are you guys, anyway?"

"We're on the outskirts of the town." answered Yumi. "There's a river in front of us, a long street we're standing on, and a row of old houses behind us." An old red-brick bridge spanned the fast-moving water about 300 yards from their location, and the rain picked up in strength to obscure anything beyond that from view.

A few dozen clacking keys later, Jeremie was looking at a map of the town. "All right, that puts you on the southern end of Heidelberg, in the downtown area. If I'm reading this location right, the supercomputer you're looking for should be somewhere across the river, about half a mile from your current location. Remember, you only have about fifteen minutes, so get going!"

"Right, we're on our way." Yumi nodded to Aelita, she nodded back, and the two girls sprinted off into the night.

Back in San Antonio, things couldn't have been going more smoothly. The rides were set up, the games were ready, anyone who wanted to be was dressed for the occasion, and the whole parking lot was cordoned off for the event. For James, it was even better: he was having the time of his life and messing with his brother at the same time! Sam had been allowed onto the rock-climbing wall ahead of the official opening, thanks to Matt's tip, and James just happened to have learned how to handle belaying equipment while working at camp.

"You feeling good up there?" He shouted up the thirty-foot wall at his little brother, currently clinging onto the wall's rubber rocks for dear life. "I know I am!"

"James, you suck! Let me down!" This was the torture: James held the rope tight in its grigri locking mechanism so that there wasn't any of the slack necessary for Sam to return to the ground. It was supposed to be used as a safety feature, but the effect was the same for a practical joke: if Sam let go, he'd simply float off the wall and dangle twenty-five feet in the air like a helpless little spider for all the fair to see.

Just as he was contemplating letting his brother down, James had another thought. He sat down, the ropes for Sam's climb still attached to the harness at his waist, and pulled out his phone. With the hand he wasn't using to keep Sam aloft, he dialed Jeremie's number.

"Hello?" The voice was crystal-clear, reminding James of the audio capabilities of the supercomputer. Jeremie had seemed like he was right next to James anytime he spoke to the others on Lyoko!

"Hey, Einstein, it's Flyboy. I just wanted to call and check in, see how your mission was going. I've accomplished mine…" He shook the line, eliciting an annoyed groan from his (luckily) good sport of a brother.

"So far, it's going almost too well. XANA is still apparently unaware of what we're doing, Odd and Ulrich are guarding the Skid on the first of four Replikas we're attacking, and Aelita and Yumi are in Germany doing the dirty work."

"That's quite a drive from Paris, isn't it? I mean, I looked up the factory's location last night, and you guys are way out to the west there, aren't ya? Bologna-Billiardcourt, or something like that?"

"Yes, but I sent them there from the Replika instead."

"What, there are more scanners? I thought the ones here and there in France are the only ones?"

"They are, but I don't need them. I can use the same basic energy-projection technique as XANA's polymorphic spectres to teleport the others to the supercomputer's general area, then they locate and disable it. That's our usual game plan for Replika hunts."

"Wow, you call that _usual_? Teleportation and sabotage sound a bit out-there to me, but I guess I should stop expecting 'normal' around you guys."

"Ha, that's true enough! Listen, I'd better go. We're about to blow the first Replika, and things are bound to start getting hot down there if XANA rears his ugly head."

James grinned, a jolt of adrenaline flowing through him as he considered the fact that he was privy to this mission. _I'm part of this team now. The danger aside, how _awesome_ is that? _"Alright, well good luck. I'll contact you when I get back into Odessa tomorrow, and we can work on getting Odd back here."

"Roger that. Yumi, turn to your right… no, your _other_ right." The connection was terminated, leaving James to the task of getting his very-annoyed little brother down from the heights he had climbed to.

"Jeremie, there's nothing _to_ the right, it's just a big hill covered in trees." Yumi peered through the wet gloom of the rainy night, trying and failing to see anything important up that hillside. "Are you sure that's where we're going?"

"That's what the tracking data from your teleportation tells me. When the local supercomputer was used to generate your spectral envelopes, it sent the initialization signal from somewhere in that direction."

"Wait, did you say you're looking at a big hill?" Ulrich broke into the conversation from the Replika. "Is there a river nearby with a red bridge over it?"

Aelita was suddenly curious. "Yes, we crossed that bridge a few minutes ago. Why?"

"Well, you are in _my_ hometown! I know that hill perfectly, it's a major landmark. If you go up there, you'll find a huge castle left over from the 1300s, or something like that. It's the biggest tourist attraction in Heidelberg; my mom used to take me up there all the time. They're not finished restoring it yet, but it's a great ruin."

"Thanks, Ulrich! Jeremie, can you find a map of the castle for us? I think we might find something in the basem…" Another lightning bolt sizzled through the air overhead, momentarily disrupting the two digitally-generated girls and stopping Aelita mid-sentence. They froze and fuzzed up for a moment, appearing to anyone watching the odd sight to have somehow picked up TV static and worn it as a cloak. A few seconds after the bolt passed, the air deionized and their short-lived handicap was removed. "…ent."

"I guess we'd better not stick around out here. Let's go!" Yumi psyched herself up for the climb, then began running up the hillside with Aelita close on her heels.

On the Replika, Ulrich and Odd were waiting and listening for the telltale buzzing wings of XANA's pet bugs. Odd was getting jumpy, and Ulrich was simply sweating it out as XANA continued to do nothing about their mission.

"Nice one, Ulrich, it looks like you were right. I looked up the restoration plans for that castle, and there's some kind of a large chamber underneath it that's marked here as 'off-limits'. Yumi and Aelita are headed down there just as quickly as they can."

Odd remarked, "A secret passage underneath a castle? Nice one, XANA, how cliché can you be?"

"It's better than XANA's idea of 'touché', Odd." Ulrich went back to attempting to nap leaning against a nearby cliff face. "Y'know, Jeremie, as soon as XANA realizes we're here, he'll probably intercept us before we reach the next Replika. It's a long way from here to Texas, and New Zealand's even further. We might need to call this a day and come back again later…"

"I can assure you, Ulrich, that won't be necessary." Jeremie's voice had a touch of pride in it. "I found a shortcut to get you to the second Replika unscathed. The third one will be trickier with XANA's monsters chasing you, but I think you should still make it."

"What kind of shortcut, Einstein? Last I checked, the Internet doesn't have any conveniently-placed sewers for us to run around in…" Odd asked.

"There's a British film crew on the north island of New Zealand that just finished shooting. They've set up a temporary high-bandwidth connection back to their studio in England to send the film there for editing, and I was able to hack my way into their uplink! You'll use that direct connection to get the _Skid_ onto the local server, and from there it's just a short trip to the Replika in your hometown, Odd."

"Then we just play it by ear on the others, and come back the same way?"

"That's the idea."

Just then, Aelita got Jeremie's attention. "Jeremie, we're here."

Aelita and Yumi were standing in the bottom of a tunnel deep beneath one of the Heidelberg castle's inner walls, surrounded by nothing but dust and darkness. Only the darkness could be seen. A few more steps forward were rewarded by the solid texture of stone paving underfoot and the open feel and slight echo of a room at the tunnel's end.

"Jeremie, can you tell us where to go from here?" Yumi asked. "I can't see a thing down here!"

"I wish I could, but this map I found isn't any more specific than to say that there's a chamber down there. You're on your own, Yumi. Sorry."

"Alright, then. Well, this would be a lot easier if I could see…" A split second later, the room was illuminated by a glowing nimbus of pink energy crackling in the palm of Aelita's right hand. Aside from Aelita smiling a roguish _'you were saying?'_, the small room still appeared largely bare. It was square in shape, while appearing nearly circular due to the corners being buried in rubble yet to be excavated. Cracked and crushed stone littered the ground, and the walls, while still intact despite their turbulent past, no longer bore whatever markings had once been engraved or painted onto them. All in all, there didn't appear to be anywhere more to go.

"Jeremie, I thought you said there was a _large _chamber down here. This isn't much bigger than my bedroom!"

"The map shows that room to be easily half the length of the castle, that can't possibly be right. Look around for a door or a secret switch or something." Another cursory glance around revealed nothing of interest. The ceiling was simple compressed earth supported by sandstone columns set in the flagstone floor, and the walls (where they were visible) were nothing but more red sandstone tinged pink by Aelita's light. As Aelita moved closer to one wall with her energy field's glow, however, something struck Yumi as odd. The rocks began to _shine_, almost like some internal light had been switched on and was penetrating through the very grains of the stone. Pinpricks of light shone out from every surface in the room.

"Aelita, what's going on with those stones? Are they electrified or something?"

"Hm? Well, isn't that strange…" She experimented, shifting the ball of sizzling energy in her hand around relative to the wall. The shimmer matched her, dimming as she moved back and strengthening with each step forward. "Oh, it's nothing, just flecks of mica in the sandstone reflecting the light. I'll bet they all glow like that!" To prove her point, Aelita extended her left hand and generated a second glowing energy field. Immediately, the entire room was ablaze with sparkling pink reflections from the stones' mica crystals.

"Did you say mica?" Jeremie thought about that for a moment, and then continued, "That doesn't seem right for some reason…" He went to work looking up red sandstone, the material making up most of the castle and the walls of the girls' chamber, then tried to find a source for the same stone with mica present in its composition. "Aha, that's why! The nearest major deposit of any sandstone containing mica is more than five hundred miles from there! Why would the old builders go to the trouble of building the basement of their castle with something that hard to find?"

Yumi remarked, "It certainly looks pretty… if you have any lights shining, anyway." Then, a thought occurred to her. "Ulrich, didn't you say that this castle was being restored?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, whoever dug this room out didn't finish; there's dirt and rubble in all the corners. Besides that, there are no lights down here for the restoration crews to work in. Why would they start work in here, then stop and leave it alone… and unlit?"

"You might be onto something… look for any kind of a pattern in the stones' reflections. If that off-limits chamber is full of reflective surfaces and no lights, then they might be important." Yumi and Aelita spread apart, looking the sandstone blocks in the walls over from top to bottom. As hard as they tried, however, to see some pattern, some purpose for the reflective mica in the stone, every rock was identical to the other. A uniform glow shone from every last one. Frustrated, Yumi sat down for a moment with her back to one of the five pillars supporting the roof. Aelita continued searching, her green eyes futilely scanning the room once again.

"You guys need to hurry it up, you've only got another four minutes to find that computer." Jeremie's teleportation process wasn't a permanent effect, as it drew on the virtual energy available to the tower the _Skid _was docked to. If that power was exhausted, the girls would be sent back to the Replika instantly with nothing to show for the trip.

"It's no use, Jeremie, there's just nothing on these walls." Aelita sat down as well, propping her hands-turned-flashlights up on her knees. From that position, the crackling pink light of the energy fields reflected from a rather large chunk of mica set in one of the columns and right into Yumi's eyes. The black-haired girl shifted a bit to get the light out of her eyes, then realized that even the columns had mica present in them. _The walls, I can understand. But the pillars,too? Somebody's a stickler for detail. _She took a closer look. There were five of the 2-foot thick sandstone columns, arranged like the fifth side of a die. The four on the outside were circular and capped with flourishes of stone in the Roman Ionian style. The central column, slightly larger than the others, was square in shape and didn't have any of the customary adornment at its peak. _And_, Yumi realized with a shock, _there's no mica in the stone!_

"Aelita, look at the middle column! It doesn't shine like the others; I don't think it's really part of the castle!" The closer that they both looked, the more obvious it was: the pillar wasn't only not made from the same materials as the rest of the room, it wasn't even really made of stone at all! There was a thin coat of colored concrete on its surface, sculpted to mimic the walls' tone and texture, but the actual column was nothing but an aluminum framework around a central steel pole. Aelita noticed, in particular, a rock bearing a small silhouette image of the angular 'eagle wings' of the U.S. Air Force's modern insignia. _Carthage was here._

Experimentally, she pushed on the circular seal and was happily surprised when she depressed a hidden button that it marked. Immediately, one of the flagstones across the room split in half and swung downward to reveal a steep flight of stairs.

"Jeremie, I've got it! This is a false chamber, meant to hide the supercomputer. The real one is right underneath us."

"Great job! I knew you'd figure it out, now get on down there. We're running out of time!" Yumi started down the steps first, taking them two at a time. Aelita took another long look at the little symbol beneath her hand before following. So much trouble for her and her father, so many memories, so many _years_ literally lost to her… and both of her parents now dead… all because of the organization that had placed that insignia there. Her green eyes burned with resolve as she continued to glare at the carving…

"Hello, Aelita? Are you still there? Wake up! You need to get downstairs pronto, you're down to _two minutes_!" Jeremie snapped her out of whatever mental state she'd slipped into and Aelita Hopper followed Yumi down the flight of stairs. The insignia on the column stayed right where it was. Where it had always been. Where it would always be. Project Carthage's legacy lived on.

Ulrich and Odd were still waiting on the Replika, listening to the progress of the girls' mission… well, Odd was listening. Ulrich had finally managed to doze off. He wouldn't be able to stay that way for long, though.

Jeremie's voice crackled in through the virtual reality's foggy air, "Guys, looks like you've got company. Guess who? Two squadrons of Hornets coming in from the east." Odd's feline ears perked up and he wasted no time in taking up a position in that direction from the _Skid_. The Hornets' individual lasers weren't very strong, but two of XANA's three-strong squadrons could make up for that with sheer force of numbers. If Aelita and Yumi took too much longer with their part of the mission, then the ship's shields might be at risk from a constant barrage.

"Hey Jeremie, I'm gonna need the Overboard…" Odd readied himself for a fight, cocking his arrow launchers and stretching while listening to the droning sound of his approaching opponents. Ulrich rubbed his eyes, shook himself awake, and simply drew his sabers before joining Odd.

"Sorry, Odd. Aelita and Yumi are almost to the supercomputer already, and I can't go pulling up your vehicles on all four Replikas. I don't have the machine resources. I think you should just head back to the _Skid_ and let the shields handle the monsters." Right as he finished talking, as if to emphasize his point, a strong pulse shook the Replika's surface. "In fact, get back to the _Skid_ immediately. Aelita just blew the supercomputer, and the Replika is disappearing!"

"How about a little more warning next time, Princess? Come on, Odd, let's move!" Ulrich turned around, tucked his swords back into their sheathes, and rocketed away as fast as his super-sprint ability would carry him.

"Aw, and I was actually looking forward to this one… wah, never mind, let's go!" Odd's tone changed rather quickly when his foot nearly fell through a hole that was slowly eating the Lyoko sector reproduction. He, too, turned around and beat a hasty retreat, making it just close enough to the sub for Jeremie's teleporter program to catch him as the ground gave way beneath his scrambling paws.

"Is that everyone? Odd, did you make it in here?" Aelita took roll call before taking her ship back into the digital sea.

"Yeah, no thanks to you! Were you trying to send me deep-digital-sea diving or something?" Just for good measure, he added, "I can't even tell whether my tail's missing!"

"Sorry." She proceeded to explain. "We didn't have a lot of time to spare, so I decided to take care of the supercomputer the easy way."

Yumi chuckled. "'The easy way' meaning she just slammed a few of her energy fields into the computer till it broke. Looked a lot like your idea of a successful Replika mission, Ulrich." She was teasing him about his… violent record with XANA's supercomputers. He had a nasty habit of leaving his sabers stuck two feet deep in exposed circuitry.

Ulrich was quick to reply, "Well, however it looked, it worked. Check out the fireworks!" The _Skidbladnir'_s crew turned around in their seats to see the Replika's enormous gray shell expand slightly, then give off a series of small flashes before vanishing in a blast of digital particles, leaving behind nothing but splintered wreckage.

"One down, three to go." Jeremie sounded like he was in a very good mood after that kind of a mission. In the lab, he slouched back a bit and continued typing commands with one outstretched hand. "Excellent work, guys, you've never been better! Aelita, I'm sending you the coordinates for that uplink to New Zealand. It's actually really close, so you should be able to see a sort of temporary network hub about 60 degrees to the west of your current location."

While he was busy doing that, a minimized window popped up on the base of his screen. He didn't notice its appearance, so it would be a while before he opened it up to see what it was. The decades-old supercomputer was always running a handful of background programs, such as the super-scanner that detected active towers on Lyoko, so it was probably just a system error log or something, anyway. A swirl of keys later, the coordinates Aelita needed were locked into her submarine's navigation computer and the mighty vessel turned towards her destination.

A minute later, the _Skidbladnir_ and her crew were off to New Zealand, rocketing away as a stream of data like any other file on the Net.

In San Antonio at the same time, James was having a blast! The church's festival was having a record turnout, so the staff and what remained of the mob of volunteers was kept on their toes trying to keep everything running smoothly. Little kids dressed like comic book heroes, TV stars, and of course the archetypal cowboys, knights, pirates and such, were running every which way over the grounds, their hastily-costumed parents struggling to keep up. Hot dogs, nachos, and the odd funnel cake could be seen everywhere from the mouths of hungry patrons to the ground, and the sound of crinkling candy wrappers was everywhere, competing with a half-dozen boomboxes at maximum. James loved just watching this event every year!

"Alright, who's up next?" He unbuckled the eleven-year-old boy he'd been belaying up the climbing wall and held the karabiner out to the waiting line. "Nice job, dude. Y'know, I've only seen two other kids make it all the way up there tonight besides you!" The kid thanked him, grabbed the requisite piece of candy from the jack-o-lantern jar another volunteer held out to him, and ran off to the next big thing: the obstacle course James' mother was still manning. Just as the next climber, an eight-year-old girl, was tightening up her harness for the climb, a tall man with a short beard and white cowboy hat James could recognize anywhere approached the climbing wall.

"Hey, Dusty!" His name was Tom Dodge, but everyone in the church's youth department, staff included, called him by an old high school nickname he couldn't seem to get rid of. "Need something?"

"Actually, yeah. The kids are in need of some volunteers for the water balloon toss. You've just been volunteered." He laughed, garnering an amused snort from James. "I'll take over the wall for a while, you just head on over there and try to look like you're more fun dry than wet!"

"Alright, alright. Let me get out of this thing and you can have it… you'll just need to give us a minute to switch off here." This second part was directed to the little girl who still wanted to climb the 'rock' wall. She was getting a little impatient, almost willing herself up the rubber stepping stones as James struggled out of the mesh-weave safety harness around his waist. "Alright, it's all yours, sir. I'll seeya in a bit!" James turned away from the station where Dusty was trying to figure out the workings of the climbing harness and ran off toward the water balloon range he'd helped set up.

When he got there about a minute later, his face fell. Lined up like a firing squad _waiting for him_ were his little brother and roughly half of his 6th-grade class. Twenty eager pre-teen faces stared at him, mischief evident in their eyes. What type was quickly made obvious: they all had water balloons in hand, and it looked like they'd gotten the pick of the litter. _Ah, crap…_

"I told you I'd get ya next time, bro. After that prank on the wall, I'm not going easy on ya, either!" Aggressive though he sounded, James and Sam both knew it was an act. Pretending to hate each other was all in their mutual idea of good fun, and the excellent quality of the fake malice in Sam's voice demanded a good show of dread for his classmates.

"Oh, boy… I don't suppose I could ask any of you to miss me on purpose or something?" He made sure his voice broke once or twice and chuckled nervously during every pause. If he was doing this right, they should have been emboldened to make sure their aim was better than ever. The entire group's shaking heads, impish laughter, and a few flat 'nope's told him he'd succeeded. Probably a little bit too well, in fact.

"Go on, James, the wall awaits! You built it, so maybe you'll know something we don't." Sam was careful to tone his statement as a taunt rather than a genuine offer of help. James turned to the volunteer on duty, a blond girl in her twenties, and asked her a question.

"About how long have these guys been waiting for me?"

"They've been standing here for a good ten minutes, so they probably got here about the same time Dusty Dodge left. In fact, I think they asked him to find you…" That explained it.

"Alright, then. Enjoy the show." He turned to his brother's friends and chuckled. "Okay, guys, you asked for me, you've got me. Do your worst!" James walked his own personal Green Mile, removed his hat and glasses, and stuck his head through one of the large holes in the brightly-painted board he'd erected earlier. He was the only one offering himself up for a good soaking at the moment, so there would be no distracting the small army, most of whom played Little League throwing sports, amassed in front of him.

He decided to give them a good show, announcing loudly in his best overhyped Southern drawl, "Alright, here we are on the night of the big game, and our first batter's on the plate. Now here comes the windup, the pitch…" Sam Pierce settled into a solid stance, drew back his right arm, and lobbed the balloon straight into his older brother's grinning face! James wiped his eyes and continued the sports announcer act.

"Stee-rike one! But can the pitcher keep it up? Our batter's looking pretty confident…" He gave his brother a roguish smirk that said 'I know something you don't, and I'm going to make you miss me.' He looked a little concerned about it for a moment, but then Sam just smirked back, picked up a second balloon, and almost effortlessly threw it into the same spot as the first one. James was thoroughly soaked to his neck now, and the night's steady breeze was making it very cold very fast, but he didn't dwell on the nighttime chill. He had a trick to pull, and no amount of cold was going to stop that.

"Okay, the count's two and O, folks, and the catcher's calling for our pitcher's trademark curve to finish it out! Can he deliver? We're about to find out, ladies and gentlemen…" Sam pulled his arm back, water balloon at the ready. He waved with his left hand, hauled his right back as far as he could, and released the projectile from a three-fingered grip with a slight spin to the left; his very best curveball, and it was aimed perfectly!

James had to react fast if he wanted to pull his little stunt off. Rapidly, he ducked his head out of the hole he'd been in, shifted a couple of feet to the right, and stuck his head back through a different hole in the board. Sam's spinning water balloon sailed directly through the first hole's center, loudly smacking and splashing against steel when it met the light pole ten feet behind the target. James smirked, laughing like a hyena at his little brother's missed opportunity. Sam was furious!

"You cheated! You're not supposed to move, you coward! Afraid of a little water?" He couldn't even try again; the church had a limited number of water balloons on hand, so the kids were only given three apiece.

"What a magnificent hit! Oh, but the ball's soaring into center left field, it's an easy out… wait, what's this? The fielder's snacking on peanuts and Cracker Jacks! He doesn't see the ball, and we have ourselves a home run in the making, everybody!" James was having altogether too much fun with his announcer bit, and the fact that he was totally ignoring Sam's taunts made his absurd act all the more satisfying.

Sam just found it annoying. "Miss, can we all throw our balloons at once?"

The girl manning the table thought it over, looked at the slightly damp human target who was now frozen in a belly laugh, and answered, "Sure, why not? Your brother's asking for it, anyway." Whether he actually _was _asking for it or not, he was definitely about to get it.

"Hear that, guys? Open fire!" Matthew Clancy set down his Robin Hood bow, picked up an unusually large water bomb, and chucked it as hard as his relatively short arm could manage. Evidently he was stronger than he looked, because the balloon went up, came back down, and smacked into the wooden target board just six inches from his slowly-recovering target. James was instantly gasping for air again with the surprise shock of cold water to his face.

He wiped off his eyes enough to see, though his vision was badly blurred beyond a few feet without his glasses. Once he had, he couldn't help but think of a certain Persian threat as he poked his head back through a different hole in the board to see a swarm of water-filled latex balloons blacking out one of the parking lot's numerous streetlights. _Oh, bugger…_

"This one's as good as destroyed, Jeremie. Exposed cables are everywhere, we can follow them straight to the supercomputer." Ulrich and Yumi had teleported into an abandoned satellite tracking laboratory in New Zealand, the location of another Replika-generating supercomputer. The place looked like it had gotten whatever was left over from Isla Sorna: the old radio communication and radar tracking dishes were bent and broken by advancing foliage, the brick-and-mortar buildings were practically crumbling from the inside out, and about the only pieces of electronic equipment that _were_ working were the supercomputer itself and the generator powering it.

"Good to hear, Ulrich. If you and Yumi can finish up _that_ fast, we might be able to get to all four Replikas tonight! Hear that, Aelita?" She and Odd were on guard duty for the Skid, moored to a tower deep in a reproduction of Lyoko's Forest Sector.

"Yes, Jeremie, but there's something bothering me." Whatever it was, Aelita sounded very concerned about it.

"What's up? My scan doesn't show the Scyphozoa in the area or anything like that…"

"Every time XANA's built a Replika, he's been using it for some project of his. The mutant spiders in Brazil, or the robot army in Siberia for example. These Replikas haven't had anything around them that looks even remotely useful." He understood what she was getting at.

"You're worried that the only reason these Replikas are here is to get to our families, right? I wouldn't put that past XANA, so you're probably right."

"If so, it's good you found them so early. If any of your relatives were hurt on my account…"

"Aelita, don't talk that way!" Jeremie went erect in his seat, adjusting his microphone so that he would be perfectly clear with what he was about to say. "Yes, this is risky. We all know that. You can't possibly be trying to tell me, though, that your _life_ isn't worth that risk! This is all XANA's doing, that's why we have to defeat him, so don't go blaming yourself."

"There is another possibility you haven't thought of, Jeremie." Yumi spoke up now, sounding just as worried as Aelita had. Coming from her, that wasn't a good sign. "These Replikas that XANA isn't doing anything with could be some kind of trap for us." Somehow, she knew exactly when to mention that possibility, because Jeremie's screen lit up just seconds later with readings of monster activity on the Replika.

"Odd, Aelita, you've got big trouble! Megatanks, five of them, coming in fast from all sides." XANA's Megatanks _were _big trouble for a team divided on a Replika mission. They weren't as agile as most other monsters, but their heavy arc cannons could prove devastating for the _Skid'_s shields. The last thing they needed was another destroyed submarine, so Jeremie began thinking of the easiest way to defeat them. "Yumi, Ulrich, how close are you to the supercomputer?" _If we can pull the ground out from under them, the problem's solved._

"We're standing right in front of it, Jeremie." The machine was a hulking tower of mechanical mastery, probably designed as one of the CRAY series of 80s-era supercomputers. Hemispherical banks of large silicon chips, memory cards, and cooling units stood four feet above the Lyoko Warriors' heads. Ulrich wasted no time in adding "I don't know how this thing is even working, let alone running a Replika _and _our teleportation. It's got more living plants in it than my Mom's garden! We might be able to destroy it if we breathe too hard…"

"Well, cripple it now and get back to the _Skid_. Odd and Aelita have got more company than they can handle!"

"Breathing hard, Jeremie. Hyah!" Yumi flung her tessen fans, manifested as very dangerous metallic weapons in the real world, straight through the computer's processor core to produce a fountain of sparks and smoke as the abused machine finally died. The room went silent as its cooling fans allowed the encroaching flora to slow and stop them at long last. Yumi caught her returning discuses and waited for the uncomfortable jolt that accompanied the deteleportation following a computer's destruction… but it never happened.

"Uh, Yumi, did you do it?" With the Megatanks approaching Odd and Aelita's position, Jeremie was getting antsy.

"Yeah, she did, and the computer's dead, but we're still here. How?" Ulrich asked.

"Ulrich, if she destroyed the supercomputer, then the Replika would be destabilizing. It's perfectly intact…"

Ulrich finished the thought for him. "…so there must be another computer somewhere around here actually generating the Replika." _That one was a decoy. This _is_ a trap!_

"I think XANA's trying to take a crack at the Skid. Yumi, you keep looking for that other computer. Ulrich, I'm sending you back to the Replika to help Aelita and Odd." The programming prodigy began typing the sequence of commands for the deteleportation.

"Einstein, you know what else would help me right now? Sending me my Overboard! I'm about to be a sitting duck out here!" Odd could hear the Megatanks approaching now, their heavy metal hulls rolling along the simulated forest terrain at breakneck speed.

"Right. Give me just one second and I'll get you all your vehicles…" He finished getting Ulrich back to his Navskid cockpit, then brought up the windows for the team's three vehicles. "Here you go; Overboard, Overwing, and… Overbike. Record time, too." All three transportation devices were on the virtual ground in a matter of _seconds_, and Odd was rocketing off on his purple board just seconds after that.

"Nice job, Jeremie. XANA will have to be faster than that if he wants to get by us!" Odd took off on one of the four narrow trails leading away from the large patch of solid ground surrounding the tower, watching for the incoming enemies. "Are there any of them over here? I can keep one or two of them busy while Ulrich and Aelita mop up."

"Yes, there's one sitting still about 200 yards along the trail to your right. Just be careful, Odd." Jeremie took a moment to realize what he'd just said. _Who am I kidding? 'Be careful, Odd', that's like saying 'Play nice, XANA'. It'll never happen…_

"Jeremie, they're here!" Aelita readied an energy field to throw at the approaching Megatank if it opened up its armored carapace or block its attack if it fired, and a freshly-arrived Ulrich spun up the Overbike's engine and pulled one of his twin sabers. Four of the massive black spheres rolled into the clearing at full tilt, covering all three of the remaining trails in or out of the area. Just as Ulrich and Aelita were preparing for a rough fight, however, they did something that no one was ready for. They continued past the two waiting Warriors and the vulnerable _Skidbladnir_, rolling straight out of the tower's open space and filing onto the trail Odd had taken in pursuit of their fifth comrade.

"Oh, no." Ulrich realized what these Tanks had been sent to do. "Jeremie, they're not here for the _Skid_, they're going after Odd!"

"Alright, Hans, let's dance, just you and me!" Odd circled the Megatank he called Hans on his Overboard, waiting for the massive black orb to make a move. It seemed oddly sluggish, as if it was being careful about how much it moved around while facing the lone Lyoko Warrior. Odd aimed down his left wrist, placing his ring finger along the seam in its black armor plating where he thought he'd need to fire in order to hit the creature's Eye. He was very rarely wrong about his aim, and he was only about twenty yards from the monster, so all he needed now was an open shot.

"Odd, stop playing around with that thing and run!" Jeremie's voice came in loud and urgent, throwing off Odd's concentration for a fraction of a second. "The other four Megatanks are coming to join you, _you _are XANA's target!"

"You sure? They might just be wanting to give this one a hand. It's not even rolling around, it's so scared!" The stationary Tank continued to use minimal movement to track its foe, obviously not wanting to roll laterally for some reason.

"Odd, now is _not_ the time for jokes." Jeremie was doing everything he could to get Odd out of there short of remote-controlling the Overboard, including attempting to muzzle his indomitable sense of humor. "There are four more of those monstrosities closing in on your position, get out of there!"

"Alright, fine. I'm going. Hans, this is your lucky day…" Odd turned the board around to leave, but he was already too late. 'Hans' opened up at that very moment to reveal the reason for his sluggish movement: two Kankrelats hidden inside of his armored shell! The outsized cockroaches rapidly leapt from their protective bubble, charged their diminutive laser cannons, and fired in sync, aiming to keep their quarry from escaping. The two red bolts of laser energy hit the Overboard under Odd's feet, throwing him to the ground as it bucked before crashing itself and exploding into digital confetti. After that, everything happened too fast for Odd to avoid. The remaining Megatanks rolled in behind him, then around him and past him as they cut off every trail leading away from his current location. Locking him into a death zone.

"Odd, run!" Ulrich shouted from his Overbike, coming up fast behind the Tanks, but even he wasn't fast enough to stop them. Three of them opened up their shells, exposing their fleshy interiors and the lethal simplicity of their arc cannon's support structure. Loud screams of discharging energy accompanied three growing planes of fatal red light that forced Odd to scramble to his feet and retreat into a very small triangle of space to avoid being hit. The monster he'd called 'Hans' then fired, his solid wall of fire slicing through the space left when the other three retracted. It punched through Odd like he was made of wet tissue paper.

Yumi was running as fast as her feet would carry her through the thick forest terrain of New Zealand, trying desperately to follow a second series of power cables she'd discovered to the supercomputer that XANA was trying so well to hide. They led her to an outbuilding in the small complex, probably used at one time to process the location data coming back from orbiting satellites that the station was in charge of tracking. As she opened the door, however, she noticed that there was another, smaller set of cords leading underneath it. _I wonder what these are for?_

"Yumi, Odd just got devirtualized in a Megatank ambush." Jeremie's voice was grim. "They were targeting him instead of the _Skid_, and by the time we figured that out, there was nothing the others could do." He proceeded to say, "If XANA was targeting Odd, then these Replikas are not concerned with our parents, they're just traps for us. Aelita and I are calling an abort, destroy that supercomputer quickly if you can find it and then you're coming out of there!"

"Gotcha, Jeremie. I think I've found it, but…" That was all she had the time to say as a spark jumped to the small set of wires she'd seen under the door, traveled along the line to its end, and detonated a large block of plastic explosive XANA had attached to the supercomputer inside. Yumi blinked out of existence just before the blast waves reached her.

Ulrich was riding for his life from the Megatank ambush party when the entire Replika shuddered from the ground up. It didn't slow him down any, but it had him worried all the same because he wasn't anywhere near the ship! If the computer had been destroyed and the Replika disappeared with him way out here, he'd fall into the digital sea. Ulrich gunned the Overbike's motor, roaring into the sky and leaving the Megatanks rolling along the vanishing ground below to fall to their doom.

It wouldn't be enough to be airborne, though; the Overbike, unlike the _Skidbladnir_, wasn't meant to exist without a VR environment, so it began dissolving along with the ground below it. The rear seat, then the exhaust system, then the enormous single wheel below him vanished before his eyes, just another 100 yards short of the _Skid'_s mooring! He saw the vessel disconnect from the tower, Aelita no doubt wanting to prevent any damage from being attached to a deleted tower, and it began to turn towards him.

"Jeremie, I'm gonna have to jump for it! Tell Aelita to hold that thing still…" Just after he saw the ship slow slightly, Ulrich picked himself up off the rapidly disappearing seat, stood up on the Overbike's forward body, and leaped before the last of his vehicle dissolved to nothingness. A touch of his super-sprint ability sent him soaring through the sky, straight toward Aelita's waiting wings. Ulrich hit solid hull, holding onto one of the ships' stability fins for dear life before Jeremie was able to transport him into his Navskid.

His breath came in ragged gasps as he realized how close he'd come to deletion. He leaned his head back, closing his eyes and trying to regain some composure within the confines of his cockpit.

"Ulrich, are you alright?" Yumi was every bit as frantic as he was, if not worse. "XANA blew up the computer before I got to it, I was worried he might have caught you away from the _Skid_!"

"I'm fine, Yumi. Let's just head for home, I don't plan on sticking around to let XANA jump me again." A very shaken Aelita silently did just that.

Another water balloon burst on the wooden target board, spraying James' face with a light mist from the relatively distant hit. He'd given up trying to avoid every one of them some time ago, so he just tried to give the ever-increasing line of kids throwing the balloons at him an entertainingly crazy target. While Sam's friends had been busy exhausting their allotted ammunition, many more little kids had seen the mass barrage of water balloons and had joined in the fun. Where there had been a determined group of twenty mischievous preteens, there was now a line of more than fifty elementary school boys and girls throwing the water-filled projectiles his way in groups of ten!

He ducked out of one hole, shuffled on his dripping-wet knees to the left, and popped his head out again with an appropriately exaggerated grin. They seemed to enjoy it when he did that, just acting like the nut he could be when circumstances demanded, so he'd been playing the target jester for nearly a half hour.

"Hey, kid, Dusty says you can head back over to the wall if you want! Looks to me like you could use a break, anyway."

James looked over to Katie (the blond girl running the water balloon table) and responded, "Whew, you have no idea how tiring that is. Sorry guys, but I'm going to take a breather for a while." The little kids who had been happily pummeling him with water bombs looked disappointed, then scurried off to find something else to do when he pulled his face away from the target board.

He rocked back on his heels, taking a minute to try to work out the crick that had developed in his neck after using it to provide a moving target for so long. As he did, however, he failed to notice an electrical panel blow open on the streetlight just five feet away from him now. A sickly arc of electricity traveled from the open panel's wires to the puddle of standing water that had collected below it. The same puddle that James was kneeling in. Before he even knew something was wrong, James Pierce was wracked with pain as his muscles contracted, his vision blurred, and he gave a short, shrill shriek before passing out. Again.

Katie Brown heard a pained scream from the direction of the water balloon target board, then silence and a thud as someone fell to the ground. She rushed over to the area to find James, the kid who'd been so happily getting beaten senseless by water balloons just minutes ago, unconscious in a pool of water. Sparks jumping from the dimming streetlight were enough to tell her what had happened.

"Somebody call the paramedics! My partner's been electrocuted!" Swiftly, the event staff made way for the ambulance that had been on standby just off the festival grounds. The medic driving it pulled up, checked the boy's vitals, and loaded him into the back of the vehicle in nothing flat. His parents were assured that he'd be fine, but he needed to go to the hospital to be looked at, just to be safe. His brother was worried sick and wanted to ride along and watch out for his ailing older sibling, but was finally persuaded to stay behind and not get in the doctor's way. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were given a room number they would be able to go to in the morning to pick him up, and the ambulance departed with lights and sirens blasting through the night. The church staff attempted to get their festival going again, but things slowed down after the boy's injury.

The doctor driver moved swiftly out of the packed parking lot and onto the city streets of San Antonio, driving rapidly in the direction of the nearest hospital. When it came time to turn, however, he kept right on going. He glanced towards the back of the vehicle and his unconscious guest with eyes that flickered between sky blue retinas and a black triple roundel. He chuckled. _Foolish Americans. They'll believe anyone in a uniform! You and I, boy, are going to have quite the little visit when you wake up, and I imagine you'll give me what I want when we're done._

In the digital sea, Aelita was still trying to grasp what had just happened. She was piloting the _Skidbladnir_ and what remained of her crew back to the site of the film crew's uplink that would return them to the European Internet server, and they were nearly to their destination when she finally broke the silence. "Jeremie, is Odd alright?"

"He's right here, he's fine. Says the Megatank blast hurt pretty bad, but it's nothing breakfast won't cure! Why?"

"Jeremie, that attack was all wrong. XANA didn't even try to destroy the _Skid_ when he had an easy opportunity, he devirtualized Odd without killing him, and he destroyed his own Replika without taking us with it. XANA doesn't make that many mistakes at once, Jeremie. He let us go." Yumi and Ulrich didn't even speak. They were either tired or too shaken by the mission's events for words.

"I know, Aelita. That begs the question, though: why would he want us to survive? Are you almost to the network hub?"

"Yes, I can see it now, in fact." She began the approach, flipping the sub's variable-geometry hull back to the vertical mode that gave her greater precision control and allowed data interface with the ship's surroundings. "We're headed home, you two. Sit tight." As Aelita maneuvered the ship into position for the broadband jump, however, a new kink was thrown into the mission. The hub beneath them suddenly darkened and disappeared.

In the French factory laboratory, Jeremie's computer screens began blaring error massages, alerts, and warnings that all told him that this night was only beginning. XANA had struck again, and this time he wasn't going to let them off so easily. "Bad news, guys. XANA just sabotaged the network uplink! Our shortcut's been destroyed, so you're going to have to go the long way around. It'll add about an hour to your trip, but you'll be able to make it on what power the _Skid_ has remaining as long as…" A new alert popped up that filled Jeremie's gut with icy dread. "…that doesn't happen! Aelita, you've got a squadron of six Kongres on your tail, and they look mad!"

Aelita turned around in her seat to see a half-dozen of the massive creatures they called Kongres due to their resemblance to the deep-sea eel. They were made up of little more than a head that resembled a disfigured angler fish attached to a semi-spectral body that contained a floating orb inscribed with XANA's Eye. Their mouths were full of extremely long, thin teeth and their eyes offered no consolation for the thoughts those teeth would give you. They were nasty fighters, usually taking two or more of the Lyoko Warriors to bring down.

"Jeremie, I'm launching the Navskids. Ulrich, Yumi, you ready back there?"

"Does it look like we have much choice, Princess?" Ulrich grabbed his controls and readied himself for a dogfight.

Yumi summed up in a few words what everyone was thinking in the back of their mind. "This is why those Megatanks attacked Odd. We're down a man now, and if we lose here, we die. XANA planned this whole thing, it's a trap!"

The two streamlined pods that were the team's Navskids dropped from their hardpoint attachments to their mothership, turned around, and sped off toward the incoming monsters. XANA had them right where he wanted them, and they weren't getting out without a fight.

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**Will the Lyoko Warriors be able to survive XANA's ambush? What's up with that wierd paramedic? How on Earth does Jeremie know the Kongres look mad? Tune in next time for "Code Lyoko: The Ties That Bind"! Hopefully, it won't be another three months before you can do so... later, dudes.**

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5/14/2010: Ah, did I say three months? Wow, that's awkward... it'll literally be three months until you see me again! Hope you enjoyed it, and don't hate me too much for taking off for my summer job in the middle of a cliffhanger! LOL


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